Future's Collapse
by KyleR91
Summary: Sonic, Knuckles, Tails, Espio, Omega, Rouge and Shadow are summoned to the future by Silver, Blaze and new character Quake to stop G.U.N. and Dr. Eggman taking over the world with highly technological weapons.
1. Chapter 1: Trouble Again

A/N: My first fan-fiction story that I've decided to publish on here. Chapters will vary in length so sorry about that. Let me know what you guys think! PM me with any suggestions, criticisms and anything else. Enjoy!

 **Chapter One: Trouble Again**

Sonic smiles. He is lying in a field with grass and flowers. Spring has just hit and the world is green with wildlife. A cool breeze runs through the air, ruffling Sonic's fur. He takes a deep breath.

"Hey Sonic!" Sonic hears a familiar voice. He turns toward the sound of the voice and sees a golden fox running towards him, twin tails rotating behind him automatically. Sonic smiles and sits up.

"Hey buddy! How's things?" the hedgehog asks. Tails beams at him.

"Very good thank you. No sign of Eggman lately which is slightly worrying, but other than that, all well. How're you?"

"I'm doing great buddy! Yeah I noticed Eggman hasn't been around lately, but he'll be back in no time, you know him."

"Yeah, then we can kick his butt again!" Tails exclaims. The two friends high-five then say together,

"And again and again and again!" they collapse backward laughing.

"Hey you two." a deep, amused voice is heard behind them.

"Knuckles! So it's the trio back together eh guys?" Sonic says. Knuckles smirks in amusement and Tails bounces up and down happily.

"So, what are you two doing here, interrupting my afternoon snooze?" Sonic jokes.

"Getting you off your fat lazy feet for one thing." Knuckles grins. Sonic laughs.

"I'm here on a serious note though." Tails says, "I have a message from someone. They want to speak to you, Sonic."

"Do they? Well take me to them Tails!" Sonic says.

"Hey, I'll come too! Need to get out a bit." Knuckles says. The three run off for Tails' lab.

From the field, they pass through the city next to theirs. Bigger and busier than their city, this is the major centre of the continent. They pass through it quickly at their speed. Tails can fly as fast as Sonic can run and Knuckles, while sometimes being left behind, always manages to keep up.

They enter their city and wound through the streets, their well known path lying itself out before them. They reach Tail's workshop/laboratory on the outer edge of the city.

Tails lets them in through a door four feet thick.

"I'm still convinced I could punch that door through you know." Knuckles grins at Tails.

"I'd like to see you try." Tails replies. He presses a button and a large screen lights up in front of them. A familiar face is on the screen.

"Silver!" Sonic yells, "So good to see you!"


	2. Chapter 2: Time-Talking

A/N: This chapter is frustratingly short in my opinion. My apologies. The chapters get progressively longer though I've noticed from here on. How'd you like the first chapter _?_

 **Chapter Two: Time-Talking**

"Good to see you too Sonic." The futuristic hedgehog replies, "However I'm not here to say hello. We need you. Here. In the future. G.U.N. has gotten hold of some very powerful machinery and are looking to take over the world. They feel it's the only way to keep the world safe. But they're wrong. The world shouldn't be controlled by anyone in particular. They would wrap us in a blanket to protect us but don't see that we'll just suffocate under that blanket. You need to come here and help us stop them. And bring as many people with you as you can. There's only three of us so we can't stop them alone."

"Three of you?" Tails asks.

"Me, Blaze and Quake. You'll meet him when you get here. Go round up a few friends then Sonic can use Chaos Control to get everyone here. If you find Shadow I'm sure he can help with that."

"Like Shadow would help us." Sonic snorts.

"Try. We need all the help we can get." Silver disconnects.

"Well, we're in Sonic! You can count on us!" Knuckles says. Tails nods in agreement. The three knock fists together.

"Well, we better got find someone who can help. Shadow will take some convincing so I may be gone a while." Sonic says.

"I'll try Rouge." Knuckles says, "See if that bat's up for some adventure."

"What about Omega? If Rouge and Shadow come, he will want to also. Having Eggman's most powerful robot with us could be a huge help." Tails points out. The other two nod in agreement.

"Amy? Cream?" Knuckles asks.

"This sounds too dangerous for Cream." Tails says.

"Hell no is Amy coming!" Sonic exclaims, "I'm keeping away from her!"

Knuckles and Tails chuckle.

"Hey, Chaotix? What about them?" Knuckles asks.

"I'm sure they have their own troubles. But we can try them if you like." Sonic replies.

The three split up to meet their potential allies.


	3. Chapter 3: Allies Gather

**Chapter Three: Allies Gather**

Tails enters the old laboratory and looks around. It's dark, so Tails turns on a torch and looks around. He flies over the rubble, his spinning tails churning up dust behind him.

As he searches, he notices rocks and rubble everywhere on the floor. They fill up the room he is in, like the building has just collapsed in on itself.

"Greetings, soft creature." a mechanical voice makes Tails jump and spin around. His heart sinks. Omega is lying against a wall, half broken, the lights in his eyes fading. Crackles of electricity sizzle and snap out from his body.

"Omega, what happened to you?" Tails asks. He starts pulling out his tool kit in search of anything to repair him.

"Holding up a collapsing building. My time with Shadow and Rouge has led me to try and help soft creatures like you. All escaped from within, but no time for me to get out. Have been here since."

"Hang on Omega, I can repair you!" Tails starts fiddling with Omega's circuitry and rewiring him. The red lights of his eyes flare to life.

"I can repair your armour and clean you up at my lab. What do you say? I need you help with something so I can fix you up at the lab and we can talk about it." Tails smiles and holds a hand out to help Omega to his feet. The robot takes it and Tails, lifting himself into the air, assists Omega rise.

"Yes, Tails. I will come with you. I will be grateful to help you after what you've done."

Tails smiles and the two head back to the lab.

Rouge collapses against a wall. She was after some jewels in a rich house but their security had been far beyond her expectations. How she hated to be proved wrong. The robot facing her had armour thick enough to not even flinch under her powerful kicks. She is collapsed in a flump against the wall, too beaten to continue. She faces her death with gritted teeth. The robot charges at her, meaning to make and end of her...

Which is when Knuckles flies into the robot, knocking it to the side. Without a word to Rouge, her grabs her hand and drags her out of the house.

"WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?!" Knuckles screams at her as they run from the horde of security robots, "You've lost your mind if you thought you could rob the richest, most secured family in the city!"

"Well, nice to see you too." Rouge replies, "Why did you rescue me anyway?"

"So I could personally knock some common sense into you! I know you're a thief but even a thief is smart enough to not go for something bigger than them. Anyway, I need your help with something."

"You need my help?" Rouge echoes. Knuckles nods gruffly and drags her out the house.

"Drop whatever you've snatched and let's get out of here before we're both killed!" Knuckles growls at her.

"Well that's no way to talk to a lady. But have it your way." she tosses the jewels and gold to the doormat and the two fly off together.

"So, how's things Knuckie?" she purrs as they fly through the sky.

"I need your help with something. Shadow and Omega may be there too. We're going to Tails' lab."

"Shadow and Omega?" Rouge exclaims, "Well, a happy union indeed. I'm trusting Big Blue is in this too?"

"Yes, Sonic is involved." Knuckles says. He isn't looking at her, focused instead on gliding towards Tails' lab.

"Shadow and Omega have been gone forever." Rouge says, "Omega was damaged and in an unknown location as far as I know and Shadow's just disappeared as he usually does."

"Tails has gone for Omega. If he can, Tails will fix him. Sonic's looking for Shadow. So we'll be waiting for them a while I imagine."

They land in front of the lab. The door is open, so they let themselves in.

"Hey guys!" Tails says, waving them over.

"Hey there little one." Rouge greets Tails, then looks at Omega. The robot is lying on a support rack while Tails tinkers with him.

"Oh Omega! What happened to him?" Rouge exclaims to Tails.

"He was helping people out of a collapsing building. He got stuck and it collapsed on top of him. I just need a bit more time and he'll be good as new, don't you worry" Tails smiles reassuringly.

"Don't worry Rouge." Knuckles says, "If there's anyone that can repair Omega, it's Tails."

The two sit down and watch Tails get to work on Omega.

The wind whips up in the forest as Sonic hurtles through it. He'd picked up vague details about Shadow's whereabouts - a ruin in the depths of this forest. No-one goes to visit the ruin so Shadow would be safe from prying eyes, giving him the alone time he seems to always crave.

Sonic stops and smells the air. A vague scent of dust creeps up from the right, so he dashes off in direction of the smell.

He stops. The ruin is an old stone tower, with most of it's walls blown out. The whole thing crumbles and dust falls from time to time. He warily enters the ruin.

"What are you doing here, hedgehog?"

Sonic looks up and sees Shadow, almost invisible in the darkness, blending in perfectly with his black fur. His blazing red eyes are visible though, and the faint light reflects off of the four golden inhibitor rings he wears on his wrists and ankles.

Sonic smirks.

"Looking for you Shadow. We need your help."

Shadow blinks, still up in the rafters.

"Why does that not surprise me? You creatures can't seem to do anything by yourselves."

"We got on fine before we met you. " Sonic smiles, "Just this one's big."

"They're always big Sonic. You never seem to realise that you bite off more than you can chew."

"Silver has contacted me Shadow. From the future." Shadow's eyes flash.

"What did he say?" Shadow asks.

"He needs us to go to the future and help him. G.U.N. are taking over the world with this new technology they have. They look to blanket the world to keep it safe.".

"I see." Shadow replies, "Well, blankets can get suffocating after a while."

"That's exactly what Silver said." Sonic says, "Knuckles has gone to get Rouge and Tails is fetching Omega. I know you're not fond of me, but I'm sure your friends will want to see you. Team Dark together again!"

Shadow's eyes narrow.

"Rouge is a pain. But Omega...him I haven't seen in a long time." Sonic can see him thinking.

"Will you come?" Sonic asks. Shadow pauses.

"I will Sonic. Just, give me a moment." Shadow replies.

Sonic nods and sits, waiting for Shadow. Shadow doesn't move, just closes his eyes. Sonic hears a water drop hit a piece of metal on the floor. He realises it's a tear-drop, from Shadow.

"Are you okay?" Sonic asks. His voice echoes in the following silence. A long pause.

"I'm fine Sonic."

"Anything I can help with?" Sonic asks. Another long pause.

"No. Nothing can be done. I just...miss her."

Sonic blinks, but says nothing. Shadow opens his eyes and drops down in front of him.

"Let's go, hedgehog." Shadow says, walking passed Sonic without looking at him.

A/N: I did want the Sonic and Shadow encounter to be a little longer. But I couldn't think of anything. I'm open to suggestions from any and all if you want to recommend something :) Hope you're enjoying it so far!


	4. Chapter 4: Chaos Control

**Chapter Four: Chaos Control**

The two hedgehogs arrive back at the lab quickly. Omega is completely fixed. Shadow does slightly brighten up at seeing Rouge and Omega.

"Shadow." Omega says, "I did not expect you to come."

"Hey, it's good to see you again." Rouge smiles at Shadow. The black hedgehog gives a flicker of a smile to his friends, then turns to Sonic.

"So how are we getting to where Silver is?" he asks. Sonic holds up the green Chaos Emerald.

"Three guesses, genius." Sonic smiles. Shadow's eyes narrow a second, then he pulls out the white Chaos Emerald.

"Any idea where the others are?" Shadow asks.

"Tails has one powering his plane." Sonic replies, "Other than that one and this one," Sonic turns the green Emerald over in his hand, "We don't have any others."

"Should we find the rest of them before we go?" Shadow asks.

"Maybe. They've come in handy in the past." Knuckles says, "But it wouldn't do to lose them when we're in the future somewhere."

"So shall we find them or leave them?" Tails asks. A pause.

"Let's leave them. If we need to come back for them, we can." Shadow replies.

"Sonic! Are you ready?!" Silver's face blares on screen.

"Yes Silver." Sonic replies, turning to the screen, "We're about to depart now."

"Well how about that?" Silver smiles, "You got Shadow to come along."

Sonic grins. Shadow blinks and half turns away. Sonic and Shadow face each other. They hold out their Emeralds towards each other, holding their Emerald in front of the other's forehead.

They shout in unison, "Chaos Control!" and a portal gate appears before them. Sonic turns to the others.

"Oh, what about Chaotix?" Sonic asks. Knuckles shakes his head.

"They're busy. Espio said he'd come if he could. I'll stay and wait for him if you like. How long will this thing stay open?" he nods at the portal.

"An hour or so." Shadow replies, "But we won't be on the other side when you arrive. We'll have moved on."

"Espio can track you guys down if he gets here. If not, I'll come through on my own and just hope for the best." Knuckles replies.

"See you later Knucklehead!" Sonic grins and leaps through the portal. Tails waves to Knuckles, who inclines his head with a smile back. Tails goes through the portal.

"Take care Knuckie!" Rouge purrs as she disappears through the gate. Omega follows her.

Shadow turns to Knuckles.

"Farewell, echidna." Shadow says. Knuckles nods. Shadow goes through the portal, leaving Knuckles behind.


	5. Chapter 5: Quake

**Chapter Five: Quake**

Sonic bursts through the portal and takes in his surroundings. He is on a tall cliff of black rock. Below him, a vast city that's almost completely on fire. The sky is red with fire and black with ash. He hears someone call his name. Looking down, he sees a streak of silver flying towards him. Sonic smiles as Silver lands in front of him. Tails appears from the portal, followed by Rouge, Omega and after a moment, Shadow. Silver is joined by Blaze and an echidna with skin as black as Shadow's.

Sonic and Tails both step back in surprise at the echidna - Knuckles is supposed to be the last one.

"You're an echidna!" Sonic exclaims.

"He's observant." the echidna remarks to Silver in an amused tone.

"Correct Sonic." Silver says, stepping between them, "Sonic, this is Quake. I mentioned him when we first spoke earlier. Quake, this is - "

"Sonic the Hedgehog." Quake finishes for Silver. He grins, looking shockingly like Knuckles. Aside from his black skin, Quake has the same purple eyes as Knuckles. His hands are the same, one large mitten like digit instead of fingers and a thumb. Two spikes, longer and thicker than Knuckles' protrude from the edges of Quake's knuckles. His gloves and shoes look like liquid silver, shimmering in the light of the fire from the city. On his wrists and ankles, like Shadow, he has rings. His is a glowing neon green however, compared to Shadow's golden ones. Quake looks slightly taller and broader than Knuckles as well.

"I've heard a lot about you, Sonic." Quake says, walking passed Silver to speak face to face with the hedgehog. Sonic looks up at him. Quake is only slightly taller than him, but shorter than Omega.

"Nice to meet you Quake." Sonic greets Quake with a smile. Quake studies Sonic from his height, then smiles.

"Nice to meet you too. Now on to the business at hand." Quake replies. He gestures at the burning city.

"Doesn't take a genius to figure out this place was attacked." he says. "Any ideas who bombed it?" he asks to the group in general.

"Silver mentioned G.U.N." Tails says. Quake nods. His face is serious.

"Yes, they've gotten out of hand lately. They'd seek to restrict us, bind us to their will, control us to 'keep us safe'. But I know the real reason they want the world." Quake's face is dark.

"Quake was a captive of G.U.N. until just a short time ago." Blaze says, speaking for the first time, "Silver and I rescued him just a few weeks ago."

"What was it like in there?" Sonic asks. Quake closes his eyes.

"I'll not talk about it here, Sonic. I'll just say it was painful. And we'll leave it at that."

The portal explodes and Knuckles and Espio bursts out of it. The portal collapses into dust behind them. Espio is up on his feet.

"I came as soon as I could Sonic. Figured you'd need a hand with this one." Espio says. Sonic smiles.

"Thank you Espio." Sonic says. He looks at Knuckles.

"Knux, you okay?"

Knuckles is on the ground, collapsed from when he'd fallen through the portal. But he is staring with wonder at Quake, who is still looking out over the burning city. He turns around. Knuckles' jaw drops and his eyes pop wide open.

"Knuckles, this is Quake. He's a friend." Silver says. Quake looks at Knuckles.

"You're an echidna..." Knuckles says. Quake grins.

"We've covered this already with Sonic." he replies. He is taller than Knuckles, slightly, and a fair bit broader.

"How?" Knuckles asks, dumb-struck.

"My parents were in hiding." Quake says, "G.U.N. were looking for them, the last two Echidnas of their time. My mother was of the Nocturnas Clan. My father, of the clan you're from Knuckles. They loved each other despite the hate from their clans. They had me and hid me, sending me into the future with the Master Emerald when they'd trained me in battle and mechanics. I've been here since."

"I'm the Guardian of the Master Emerald." Knuckles says.

"An honourable position." Quake commends Knuckles, "We'll talk later Knuckles. There's a burning city to deal with." Quake points at the ruins below them. Knuckles nods, getting business like again.

"So what's eating G.U.N. up?" Knuckles asks.

"They want to try and control the world to protect us. Apparently." Silver replies.

Three G.U.N. robots appear out of thin air. One of them speaks in a mechanical tone.

"You have been plotting against G.U. too long now. Silver the Hedgehog, Blaze the Cat and Quake the Echidna are G.U.N. and must be taken alive. Prepare to attack."


	6. Chapter 6: First Battle

A/N: These chapters will start being a decent length soon guys, I promise! Remember to drop a review if you like what you see! Or if you don't! I welcome compliments and criticism. Chapter Six! Enjoy!

 **Chapter Six: First Battle**

Silver goes for them but Quake holds him back as Sonic leaps up and destroys one of the robots.

"Let's see what they can do." Quake says to Silver, who nods.

Tails flies up to the second and rips out its wires and circuitry, sending it crashing to the ground. The last fires a green laser at Tails but the laser goes off target when Omega shoots it down.

Ten more robots appear out of thin air. They are small flying machines with turrets on the front. They open fire. Everyone bounces around the shots, dodging easily except Omega, who takes the attacks like they are nothing. He shoots three of them down with a powerful machine gun in his arm. Espio sends a blade directly through another. Tails tinkers with a fifth. Knuckles crushes two of them together. Rouge kicks one flying into another and Sonic slams into the last, blowing it up. They all land on their feet, alert to any more danger.

More robots appear, and more on top of that, swarms of them. The group take off. Blaze joins them this time, but Silver stays with Quake, who is studying the group. He watches Sonic and Knuckles in particular, Sonic because he's the leader of the group and Knuckles because of their shared race. Knuckles smashes through a line of them with fast, fierce attacks with his massive fists, shredding anything he comes into contact with. Sonic is too fast for anything to hit him, as he dances and bounces around all shots fired at him and delivering lightning attacks in return. Quake is impressed and moves on to observe the rest of the group. Espio attacks with deadly precision, hitting targets far out of his reach with pinpoint accuracy. Those he handles hand to hand he deals with swiftly.

He attacks using a very fast form of martial art. Rouge is a very evasive fighter, similar to Sonic, but Rouge uses spinning kicks to deal with most of her enemies. Omega appears to have various forms of weaponry concealed in his huge mechanical arms and blasts anything in his way out of the sky. Tails quickly disables or destroys any robot he can tinker with for half a second, showing to Quake that although Tails clearly isn't as physically built as the rest, he can look after himself when against robots. He's technological and mechanical rather than physical. Quake has seen Blaze battle before, but still admires her devastating fire abilities.

Quake hasn't seen Shadow battle at all. Although Quake can't see him on the ground, therefore meaning he must be fighting, Quake cannot spot him anywhere in the scrap.

The robots all explode and everyone drops to the ground. Sonic laughs.

"Is this all we have to deal with?" he asks.

"No." Silver says, "These robots are just for surveying areas. They're among G.U.N.s weakest since they're not really meant for fighting. You'll get your challenges soon enough."

Quake studies the group and sees Shadow at the back. He hadn't been anywhere during the fight, yet here he stands, on guard like the rest of them. Quake is extremely curious about him.

"Well I know I can count on you guys in a tight spot now." Quake laughs at them.

"We can all handle ourselves." Shadow replies, "But can we count on you?"


	7. Chapter 7: Plan of Attack

**Chapter Seven: Plan of Attack**

Quake grins. Ten more robots appear behind him. He closes his eyes.

The robots open fire. The green rings on Quake's wrists and ankles glow brighter and Quake vanishes. He reappears in the middle of the robots and holds his arms out, eyes still closed. A ball of light expands out from him and explodes, taking all ten out at once. As he drops another robot appears. This one is much larger, build for attack rather than the previous flying robots meant for surveillance. It fires lasers and rockets at Quake, who dodges around them with the agility of Sonic. He laughs then throws himself fist first into the robot and pierces clean through it, leaving a gaping hole in the robot. It shudders a second, then collapses and explodes. Quake turns to the group.

"I can handle myself also. I'm impressed Sonic. You sure know some decent fighters." Quake says. Sonic smiles.

"We've all been in our fair share of saving the world stuff. We know a thing or two about sticky situations." he says. Quake nods, and looks at Shadow again. The black hedgehog is still studying him, a dark look in his eyes.

"We need to infiltrate the nearest city and start taking G.U.N. down." Blaze says, "They've countless thousands of troops, robotic and living that must be dealt with. There aren't many of us so I doubt we could face the full wrath of their army. But we can make a dent here and there."

"What about their base?" Knuckles asks, "Shouldn't we attack there?"

"I'm afraid it's not as easy as that." Quake replies, "Their base is hidden miles underground. It's the most secure place on the planet. You can't just bust the door down and start shredding everything. Everything's much stronger in there than anything we face out here. Armour is thicker, weapons are stronger. On top of constant surveillance and walls thick enough to withstand even a punch from me and not get marked, it's impossible to get in without being a member of G.U.N."

"Rouge and I are G.U.N. agents." Shadow says, "Would we pass their security in this timeline?"

"Maybe." Silver answers, "But, as capable as you are, I wouldn't want just the two of you going in alone."

"I can handle myself." Shadow says, eyes narrowing.

"I know that Shadow. But at least survey the area first before just charging in. Study the enemy."

"So are we going to try and hit their base? Or thin out the streets first?" Espio asks.

"I'd say both, but there aren't enough of us to split up." Blaze points out, "The base is nowhere near us and we'll need a plan of attack to get in. So let's help the cities and when we're close to the base, we'll work on a plan."

"Okay. How do we help the cities?" Tails asks.

"Wreck all of G.U.N.s toys." Quake grins, "And make sure everyone is okay. Help anyone out who's in danger."

"Are we travelling as a group or splitting up around the city?" Espio asks.

"Both." Blaze says, "We'll split into smaller groups and travel like that. Quake, give them some Alarm Bands so they can call for help if they need it. In case you run into something nasty."

Quake fixes a white band on the upper left arm of everyone. For Omega, he attaches it to the robot's chest.

"There are ten of us. So we can split into twos if you like." Blaze says.

"I'd be more comfortable if we went into threes, with one group being four." Silver says.

"Scared, hedgehog?" Shadow enquires. Silver narrows his eyes.

"No. I know what G.U.N. can do with these robots. I'm not taking chances." he retorts.

"Well Tails and Knuckles are coming with me." Sonic says. Quake nods.

"Rouge and Omega can come with me." Shadow whispers. Quake turns to Silver, Blaze and Espio.

"I feel you two can manage okay on your own." he says to Silver and Blaze, "You two go together and Espio can come with me. Is that okay, Espio?" he turns to the ninja, who nods.

"We'll meet back here in half a day from now." Quake says, "And we'll report what we've found."


	8. Chapter 8: Old and New Enemies

**Chapter Eight: Old and New Enemies**

Sonic rushes into the city, Tails and Knuckles behind him. A robot immediately challenges them. Knuckles goes to punch through its leg - it towers over them - but the machine doesn't flinch at Knuckle's blow. He pauses, confused for a moment, then lands another crashing blow onto the robots' leg before it boots him flying backwards. Tails takes to the air, yelling to Sonic that he'd find a weak spot on it while Sonic distracts it, bouncing around bullets it fires and landing quick attacks which the robot takes like nothing.

"Great, a tough robot right at the start." Sonic says, rolling to the side to avoid a missile. The missile explodes on the ground, knocking Sonic flying. He lands on his feet and rushes up the robot, delivering a blow to its head. The armour is too thick and the attack does nothing.

"What is this thing made of?!" Knuckles asks, punching the leg again. He climbs and jumps up it, landing a punch where he can.

"A material you won't have discovered yet." a voice answers behind them. They whirl around.

Sonic smirks, "About time you showed up. We were wondering where you'd gone."

"Doctor Eggman!" Tails exclaims. The doctor laughs.

"Try your best Sonic and Knuckles but you won't pierce its armour - I developed it myself with the help of G.U.N." Eggman explains.

"How are you in league with G.U.N.?" Sonic frowns. The doctor laughs.

"Oh Sonic, that is a most interesting tale. I'll be happy to tell it, when you're locked up in the G.U.N. Fortress."

"You're not taking me anywhere, Egghead." Sonic grins.

"You are quite wrong there, hedgehog." another voice emerges from behind Eggman. It is a G.U.N. Commander, who points at Sonic with hatred in his eyes. The robot attacks, catching Sonic unawares and knocking him flying. Knuckle lands a powerful punch on the visor on the robot's head and it shatters. He smashes the head of the robot with his fists before being slammed into a stone wall by a swinging blow from the robot.

"What do you want with Sonic?!" Knuckles bellows.

"How could you not know?" Eggman asks, "Sonic ran into trouble with G.U.N. trying to help Shadow. Do you not remember?"

"Help Shadow?" Sonic repeats, "Helping him with what?"

Eggman's eyes narrow.

"Who are you? Some invention meant to trick me? You are not Sonic!" Eggman says. The robot advances, arming itself.

"What do you mean? Of course this is Sonic!" Knuckles yells, "How can you not recognise your own nemesis? You're crazier than before."

"Before?" Eggman perks up in interest, "Before what?"

Knuckles pauses. After a moment ,the G.U.N. Commander laughs.

"I know what this is! Silver must have warped you here with Chaos Control! You're Sonic from the past!"


	9. Chapter 9: Secrets in the Lab

**Chapter Nine: Secrets in the Lab**

"Shadow! Up there!" Rouge calls, pointing up a skyscraper. They see crackles of lightning towards the top.

"If we can get up there, we could get a better view!" Rouge yells. The wind is strong where they are, making communication slightly harder than normal. Shadow's quills are flying around like crazy in the wind. Omega isn't affected by it, being heavy enough to withstand the effects. The wind is making it difficult for Rouge to maintain herself in the air, but her wings are strong, so she manages. She uses them to scale the skyscraper effortlessly. Omega joins her, using jets in his feet and back to elevate into the air. Shadow skates up the side of the building, not leaving a single mark on the glass of the skyscraper. Even though both Rouge and Omega started up the building before him, Shadow still outstrips them easily and is waiting for them at the top. He looks over the city.

It is very well built up, with most of the buildings far below them. They see one, pure white building in the distance that takes their eye though. The G.U.N. symbol is on the front of the building. Below, Eggman's symbol.

"Since when was the Doctor working with G.U.N.?" Rouge asks.

"A lot can happen in the future." Shadow replies, not looking at her. His eyes are fixed on the building.

"If G.U.N. are against us and the Doctor is with them though, that could cause a serious problem to us. The two of them working together would be a substantial threat to the everyday lives of the people who live here."

"Computer reccommends immediate travel to the tower." Omega advises them.

"Yes Doctor." Shadow says, "Let's see what you have for us now."

They leap down the building, racing towards the lab. At Shadow's speed, it takes him a mere minute to transverse the several mile gap between the skyscraper and the lab. The other two catch up to him another minute or two later. They are met with robots, who arm themselves against Shadow and the other two. Omega arms himself while Rouge kicks a robot flying into the wall. Three charge at Shadow - none remain after a second of his attacks.

"Seems like we'll have to fight to get in here." Rouge remarks. Shadow grunts and darts forward into the building.

The lab is full of robotics, all of which start shooting at the three.

"What's with the hostility?" Rouge wonders. Shadow launches Chaos Spears at the robots and they all disintegrate.

"Who knows. Eggman must be hiding something in here and I want to find out what."

"Indeed." Omega agrees, "Doctor Eggman seems keen to keep it hidden."

More robots assault them and humans in armoured suits and guns arrive. All point their weapons at the trio.

"Wait, that's..." one of the soldiers says. He starts shaking, his gun pointing at Shadow.

"It's Shadow! But...that's impossible!" another soldier exclaims. All are quaking with fear.

"Looks like you're as popular as ever." Rouge remarks. Shadow snorts, and walks up to the nearest solider, ignoring the guns, now all trained on him.

"You're hiding something here. What is it?" Shadow asks in a whisper. The soldier trembles.

"Don't tell him anything!" the soldier's superior barks. The soldier quivers some more then makes the mistake of looking Shadow in the eye. His trembling triples under Shadow's burning gaze and, with a shaking hand, points to a corridor to their right, then points his finger downward twice.

"Do not let them through that door!" the commanding soldier bellows but the three are already gone, bolting in the direction the soldier had told them. They find an elevator going downward and slide into it before the soldiers can reach them.

"Why were they so surprised to see me?" Shadow wonders aloud.

"I know, you'd think they'd seen a ghost." Rouge says.

"Pea-brained humans." Omega muses.

The elevator takes them down to the bottom floor. It stops but the doors don't open. Shadow tenses.

"Be on your guard." he growls. Rouge and Omega alart themselves in preparation for a fight.

A moment later, the doors slide open. They're in a huge, high ceilinged room. A suspended animation tank sits right at the rear of the room, a good half a mile away from them. Battle robots of all sorts of designs, as well as weapons, vehicles and gadgets are stacked up all around them. Shadow creeps cautiously forward and takes a harder look at the animation tank at the rear of the building. It is pure glass, filled with water and something blue asleep in the tank. Shadow frowns.

A scientist approaches them, looking as equally shocked as the soldiers to see Shadow.

"Y-you sh-sh-shouldn't b-be here!" the scientist stutters. Shadow's frown tightens.

"I am friends with the Doctor. I'm sure we'll be fine down here." Shadow replies.

"B-b-but you c-can't be here! You shouldn't exist!" the scientist exclaims.

"What are you on about?" Rouge asks. The scientist takes a deep breath and calms himself.

"You are Shadow right? Shadow the Hedgehog?" he asks. Shadow nods.

"That's just not possible." the scientist replies, "Shadow died twenty years ago. Trying to break into this very lab, this very room, trying to get to that very tank." he gestures at the blue thing asleep in the suspended animation tank.

"Died?!" Shadow exclaims, taken aback.

"He was helped by Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic helped Shadow get in here. But we caught Shadow before he made it to that tank. Sonic got away - we haven't seen him since. But Shadow...we locked him up, drained him of his power."

The scientist sighs sadly, "We asked him questions until his voice broke. Then we took his inhibitor rings and left him to die."

The trio are stunned.

"Show me." Shadow says. The scientist nods.


	10. Chapter 10: City Attack

A/N: Sorry! I've written loads of Author's Notes but none have displayed themselves. I know why now - I'd written them in italics and I'm writing the story and uploading it from WordPad (the website doesn't support italic and bold characters from Wordpad) But now you can read them :) Hope you're enjoying the story so far!

 **Chapter Ten: City Attack**

Silver lifts the rubble out of their way effortlessly. He piles it up against a half collapsed building and gestures the people trapped on the upper floors to climb down using the rubble ramp he'd made. The people nervously start out on the rocks and rubble and soon they are streaming down the ramp, tears streaming down their face as they thank Silver for his help.

"You're a good person." an elderly woman says to Silver, rubbing his cheek.

"I am honoured I could help." Silver replies.

Blaze flies towards them, arms piled high with food. She spreads it out among the humans, then lights fires in the underpass they're in.

"Eat up guys!" Blaze cheers, smiling as she passes around the food. They rain thanks down upon Silver and Blaze as they take their leave. They fly up the street.

"Now to start the attack." Silver says. Blaze nods and hurls a fire blast at a large robot patrolling the streets below. Silver trips it over with his telekinesis and between the two, destroy it in a few seconds. More robots quickly come to the aid of their destroyed comrade, and Silver and Blaze get to work. Blaze claps her hands around one small robot, producing such heat that it melts in her hands. She kicks another flying miles away and dodges an attack by a third. Before she can do anything, Silver grabs it and smashes it against the floor with his telekinesis.

"I wonder how the others are getting on?" Blaze asks as she avoids a missile from a large robot on the ground.

"Quake and Espio will be fine." Silver replies, throwing a robot into a building and watching it explode.

"The others though...they aren't used to this world. They might get into trouble."

"Stop being such a worry-wart." Blaze laughs, throwing fireballs at the large robot on the ground, "They'll be fine. if they need us, they'll call."

They dance around the robots attacks and Silver drags them all into a ball that crushes itself inwards. The broken pieces of metal drop, useless to the ground.

A tank draws up to them and fires it's powerful cannon. The cannonball misses Silver and Blaze, and a large chunk of the building next to them collapses downwards, burying the ruined robots beneath them. Silver uses telekinesis to bend half the cannon upward while Blaze hurls a huge fireball at it.

It fires bullets at them, which they fly around to avoid. Silver deflects some back at the tank, but the armor is so thick the bullets bounce off harmlessly.

"I'm getting tired of this." Silver remarks and lifts the entire tank into the air. He elevates it twenty storeys into the sky, then flips it upside down and drops it. A few seconds later, the tank explodes as it makes contact with the concrete below them.

An alarm sounds behind them and they hear robots and infantry making their way towards them.

"Now might be a good time to get out of here." Blaze comments.

"Maybe. But aren't we here to bring down G.U.N.'s forces, not just run away when the going gets tough!" Silver replies. Blaze nods.

A moment later they're surrounded with all sorts of G.U.N. agents. A commander leading the squadron laughs and yells at Silver and Blaze, his voice technologically magnified, as though he is speaking through a megaphone.

"If it isn't Blaze and Silver!" the Commander laughs, "Looks like we finally got you. I know of your powers but they surely aren't strong enough to defeat all of us? We're packed tight all around you, so there's no escape."

"This is madness!" Silver bellows back at the Commander, "You're killing people when you claim to be saving them! Collapsed buildings, the city on fire, how is that helping people, how is that keeping them safe?"

A gunshot pierces Silver's words, silencing him.

"That's enough out of you, hedgehog." The Commander retorts, although Silver now sees some of the soldiers looking doubtful.

"We do what we're ordered to do. The city wouldn't be in ruins if it weren't for you! You're the reason we're in this mess!" the Commander barks at Silver.

"You're just trigger happy nut-cases who love any excuse to use those weapons of yours!" Silver roars back, "It's nothing to do with safety any-more, the only ones you're keeping safe are yourselves! Everyone else has to starve and hide in the ruins of this city or be gunned down for no reason by your soldiers or your robots because you deem them a threat for absolutely no reason!"

"You're savages!" Blaze adds, speaking to the Commander for the first time, "You've lost the respect for life you once had."

The Commander calls to his soldiers to open fire and they do so without question. Bullets and rockets and energy bolts rain down on Silver and Blaze. Silver surrounds them in a psychic shield wile Blaze shoots blasts of fire in various directions. A bullet zips passed Silver, narrowly missing his arm. They can hear the Commander shouting at his soldiers to attack again and again. Silver strains from within the shield and Blaze knows he won't be able to keep it up much longer.

She creates a ring of fire then sends it downwards. It grows in size and circumference as it descends and soon engulfs the Commander and a lot of his robots and infantry. The Commander's armour is extremely technological though and Blaze knows he'll survive the attack. The gunfire reduces a lot as soldiers are defeated by the fire. Silver takes a deep breath, then lowers the shield with a quick warning to Blaze. A missile is fired at him which he deflects skywards. He hears the explosion as it gets too high.

Soon Silver and Blaze have taken out most of the Commander's forces, and he starts yelling at them to retreat. Although the two are outnumbered, their combination of skill and abilities allow them to defeat most of their opponents with ease. they start chasing the Commander and what remained of the force down the street now, throwing cars, chunks of masonry and fire at them, yelling at the Commander to get out of town.

The army flee. Silver and Blaze take out most of them, leaving a few with the Commander to escape. Without looking at one another, Blaze and Silver high five each other, then fly back to the cliff where everyone split up.


	11. Chapter 11: Ninja and Echidna

A/N: Easily the largest chapter so far. And a very enjoyable one to write. I tried a few different things writing this chapter, keeping the suggestions of one individual particularly in mind. Please review this chapter if you can, I'd appreciate some feedback on this one - put a lot of work into it. Enjoy!

 **Chapter Eleven: Ninja and Echidna**

"You're certainly an interesting character aren't you?" Quake asks Espio.

"How do you mean?" the ninja replies

"A ninja chameleon. That's got to be the best thing I've ever heard of." Quake laughs, "Camouflage makes things that little bit easier eh?" he adds.

"Certainly helps with stealth missions." Espio nods in agreement.

They are walking down an abandoned street, in search of anyone who needs help. Quake is well known around here, or so he says, so they decide to patrol the area.

"How long have G.U.N. been attacking now?" Espio asks.

"Over thirty years now." Quake replies, "I'm actually surprised they haven't gotten the whole world under their command yet. Thirty years of sieges with their weapons and tech? They've conquered a few cities and towns but for the most part, they're still trying."

"That's extremely unusual." Espio says. Quake nods.

"Indeed. I wondered that myself when I first joined the force against G.U.N."

"When was that?" Espio asks.

"A few years ago." Quake answers, looking through a smashed house window.

"How old are you?" the ninja asks the echidna. Quake chuckles.

"Twenty. You?"

"Sixteen."

Quake pauses. "You're young for a ninja. And one so accomplished."

"What kind of things can you do?" Espio asks, "You must be similar to Knuckles, as you share the same species."

"I do not know what Knuckles can do, so I cannot compare myself to him." Quake answers.

They sit down on an old bench. The neighbourhood had a quiet, peaceful atmosphere, with the destroyed houses and absence of life and sound. It is a ghost town, the remnants of a charming village destroyed by G.U.N.

Espio looks around. Flakes of a dark grey colour fall from the sky, and land on Espio's boots and the ground. Espio inspects it.

"The town's covered in ash." Quake explains, "G.U.N. fire-bombed the place. No-one survived." Quake looks at the floor. He'd lost some close friends who lived here that day.

"You have had a hard life." Espio comments. Quake nods.

"Life is never easy, my friend." he replies, "But sometimes it's harder than usual. It pushes you more. And you just have to keep going."

"Will G.U.N. likely be in this area?" Espio asks. Quake shakes his head in response.

"This place has been empty a few years now. I don't even know why we're here. Anyone that survived that blast should be a hundred miles away from here, for their own sake. But it's nice to check every now and then."

"And you miss those you were close to from here." Espio adds. Quake looks at him, a mixture of astonishment and admiration in his eyes.

"You're a sharp one, ninja. I'm glad you're with me." he says.

They get up and start walking the street again. A little while down the road, some dust bursts out of a house as something small collapses from within. The two look at each other and head straight for it. As Quake goes to enter, Espio turns sharply as though he'd been stung.

"What's wrong?" Quake asks.

"Go ahead and check it out. I will stay on the lookout, in case it's a trap." Espio whispers. Quake nods and heads inside. he sees Espio just long enough to see the chameleon vanish from sight as he blends in flawlessly with his surroundings.

An invisible lookout. Perfect. Any spies keeping an eye on us will never suspect that. Quake sniggers to himself. Being extra quiet, Quake proceeds into the house. Rubble is everywhere, and the recent dust makes it hard to see. Quake tunes in with his hearing to detect any signs of life. He hears a tiny cough and follows it. It's up the stairs, but the stairs are collapsed and there's no way up.

"I wish Silver was with me." Quake mutters to himself under his breath. The telekinetic hedgehog would easily have been strong enough to lift the pile of rubble all at once and gently move it out of the way. But with Silver not being around, Quake would have to improvise. He glances out the window to the rear of the house. Seeing no-one watching from the outside, he swings out the broken window and silently climbs the wall of the house, hopping in the top floor quiet as a cat. Quake may be powerful in combat, but he knew how to be quiet and stealthy when he wanted to.

He quickly sees who had coughed - a small human girl no older than six, trapped in a wardrobe by some more rubble. The girl is crying silently to herself and hasn't noticed Quake.

A hand silently touches Quake's shoulder. He whirls around in alarm but finds it is Espio.

"All quiet outside." Espio whispers. He spots the human girl.

Quake holds his arms out and keeps low as possible as he approaches the girl. Espio vanishes again, providing unseen protection should anyone attack Quake from behind. Quake is comfortable with Espio watching his back, so he proceeds carefully towards the girl, who looks up with tear-filled eyes and sees Quake.

The echidna smiles at her, but the girl freezes. She looks briefly at the rubble trapping her in the wardrobe, then back at Quake. Quake makes gestures with his hands, signalling to the girl he is going to try and move the rubble so she can get out. He smiles kindly while doing so, trying to assure her he is a friend. The girl smiles back and nods.

Quake carefully lifts the rubble away, scooping it up in one go with his massive hands and gently laying it to the side of the room. He lets the girl cautiously push open the wardrobe and approach Quake slowly. Quake nods encouragingly and holds his arms out, as if to hug the girl. The girl hesitates, then runs into Quake's arms and hugs him tightly.

"Where are you from young one?" Quake asks quietly. the girl jumps at his voice, then whispers a town's name in reply.

"Do you think your parents are there?" Quake asks. The girl nods.

"I'll take you to them. You're safe with us." Quake smiles. The girl frowns in question, then looks behind Quake as Espio reappears into view and smiles at her. The girl's jaw drops.

"Quake, we have company." Espio warns, winking at the girl.

"What kind?"

"They look unfriendly. And they seem to know we are here."

"What do they look like?" Quake asks.

"G.U.N. uniforms and in some sort of armour."

"Then we need to get out of here." Quake hisses. He holds the girl closer to him.

"They're bad people." the girl whispers. Quake nods.

"They won't hurt you while I'm around." Quake reassures her, "Nothing gets passed me."

"I'll cover you." Espio says, vanishing again, "Take the girl and get out. I'll meet you back on the cliff. Get her to safety." Quake hears a metallic noise, like a blade being drawn. Quake nods.

"Don't stay and fight if you cannot defeat them." Quake advises, "That armour is strong. Flee if you feel you must."

"Right." Espio says. Quake hears a blade being thrown and a scream behind him. He bolts for the front of the house and leaps out the window. Keeping the girl close to him, he activates technological wings he has strapped to his back. They're hidden under his dreadlocks and spines so people rarely notice them.

He cannot fly as fast as Silver or Blaze but he can put a lot of distance behind him quickly. The street is soon miles behind, the girl still safe in his arms. Quake flies to the town the girl said she was from. It is half in ruins, but her street is intact. Her parents aren't home when they check, so they fly to the town centre and she quickly spots them. G.U.N. soldiers are everywhere however and Quake doesn't want to just drop the girl off for fear the soldiers will attack the family due to their association with him. He, Silver and Blaze are G.U.N.'s top three wanted fugitives, except for the Sonic the Hedgehog of this time. But he vanished twenty years ago helping Shadow into G.U.N.'s secret lab and no-one's seen him since.

He quickly explains to the girl that the G.U.N. soldiers cannot see him for they'll take him away. The girl nods. Quake quietly and quickly drops her off in the street, then scales the building to watch from high up. The girl runs towards her parents and taps her mum on the arm. Both parents whirl around and their faces light up in delight. The reunited family embrace. Quake notices, with extreme pleasure, that the soldiers look rather uncomfortable at the display of emotion. The girl turns around to where Quake is and says a silent thank you to him. Quake smiles and inclines his head in return, then turns and disappears from the girl's view as he heads back to the cliff where everyone had split up. He just hoped Espio is okay.

Espio tightens his focus. The human he'd injured with his shuriken is out of the fight but there are many more coming. With Quake and the girl out of the way, he can fight without fear of harming his allies. Fight at his full strength if need be.

Espio hasn't been in many fights like this. Still, to him, humans are slow and easily confused and would rather cower behind a gun than fight hand to hand. He relishes the chance to put these thugs into place. Were they honest soldiers with honour, he'd have thought twice about attacking them. But these are no soldiers - they have no respect for life and only protect their own. Only thugs and bandits do that sort of thing. Espio narrows his eyes and jumps from the upper floor of the building.

Standing in front of the group as they continue to advance toward the building, Espio observes his opponents. There are seven of them, not including the one he injured with the shuriken, who is unconscious. Espio had struck him in the shoulder with the star shaped blade and had gone down quickly.

In the lead of the seven is a broadly built man, maybe middle aged. His face is dotted with stubble, and his eyes are dark piercing points set in his face. Espio notes there is a name tag on their chest - the lead's name is Robert. Robert is holding a rifle with practised ease. His eyes are full of anger, from the years of enforcing his will upon others.

Behind Robert, the rest of the group look similar to him. Angry eyes, mouths tight in a snarl, and tense. Very tense. Some have relish in their eyes, like they enjoy this bullying they call being soldiers. Espio's own anger rises at the mere sight of them, but he pushes it to one side. Anger has it's places but it will not serve him here. He notices small things about the soldiers as individuals - one to the far left of Robert has a thin scar on the bottom of his face, slanting downwards from the left side of his lower jaw and curving under his chin. Espio sees his name is Richard. Another to Robert's direct left, by the name of Jeffrey, has thin spectacles over his eyes.

Espio notices a soldier to Robert's direct right that looks especially savage - she has a twisted mixture of a snarl and a nasty grin on her face. Her right arm is robotic, a vicious piece of hardware with several weapons built into it. Espio's eyes narrow - he'd need to be careful where G.U.N. technology is involved. He sees her name is Jemma.

The rest of the soldiers have few significant features, but Espio takes note of their names nonetheless. Marvin, the shortest soldier of the group, to the middle left of Robert. Christine, another female soldier next to Richard, wielding a large shotgun. And Nathan, a muscular bully of a human dual wielding heavy machine guns. His arm muscles ripple with the strain of the two guns.

All the uniforms and load-outs of the soldiers are smeared with dirt and grime, as if they hadn't cared to wash or take care of themselves in a long while. It shouts out to Espio even more that their level of disrespect is appalling indeed.

He runs between the soldiers. As he is invisible, the wind he whips up as he runs catches the soldiers and makes them stumble. Espio scales a tree and observes from high up as the soldiers collect themselves from their stumble. Espio turns visible and grins briefly, teeth glinting in the sun. He drops from the tree and audibly clears his throat, catching the attention of the soldiers.

"What the hell are you?" Marvin asks. All seven point their guns at him. Espio half turns away from them, eyes closed.

"That is not of your concern, human." Espio replies, "Who do you claim to be?"

"We're soldiers of G.U.N. punk. We'll teach you to speak like that to us!" Christine replies.

"G.U.N.?" Espio asks, eyes still closed, "I do wonder what that stands for."

"Guardian of the United Nations!" Richard spits at Espio.

"Ah, but you're not are you?" the chameleon replies, "To guard is to protect and you are not protecting anyone other than yourselves." Espio opens his eyes and glares fiercely at them.

"You are not soldiers. Soldiers have respect to all things. They are taught to know when to spare lives as well as take them. They are taught to support the weak and helpless and those powerless to do anything for themselves."

"ENOUGH!" the soldiers yell and they open fire onto Espio. The chameleon leaps into the tree and bullets fly around him, snapping branches in half and showering the soldiers below with leaves and twigs. A branch cracks off and collapses on one of the men. Espio leaps to the top of the tree, balancing on the very topmost branch. He turns invisible while he is too high up for them to see and jumps down behind them. They are still shooting into the tree.

Espio shakes his head and relaxes on the grass while they burn all their ammo. He would fight them all, honestly, in hand to hand combat. He will truly see how well trained they are. Soldiers are supposed to be advanced in hand to hand as well as being able to shoot a gun. He will test that.

The guns all start clicking, as they do when their ammo supply is exhausted. Finding they have no ammo to reload with, they laugh at each other and presume Espio has perished. The tree is in tatters, like a great clawed monster has ripped it to shreds. Tassels of leaves and pieces of wood fall from the tree. Espio is sad at the destruction of something that could well be over sixty years old. But that is why he is here - to teach these soldiers respect. Teach them a lesson.

Espio gets to his feet and turns visible. He flexes his hands and stretches the muscles in his arms, legs and neck. His eyes narrow. And he launches himself in an attack that bowls over Marvin. He gets to his feet and turns around to face them. Their faces are shocked. Absolutely dumbstruck. A new fear enters their eyes. And Espio will use that to his advantage. Espio flexes his hands again and raises them in the starting position for a duel, as he had learned when he was only four. Feet apart, knees bent, eyes focused, arms raised so his hands are level with his eyes. Hands flat like blades. He strikes, a quick swiping movement to a Marvin's leg. The force of the blow knocks the soldier over and Richard moves to duel with Espio.

It lasts less than five seconds. Espio avoids a clumsy overhead swipe by the human, jabs him twice in the stomach and hip, then leaps and pins him to the ground. Richard crashes down onto his back, with Espio standing on his chest. Robert snarls and aims a pistol at Espio's head.

Espio vanishes and jumps at the same time as Robert fires, only just missing Richard. As Richard yells at him for nearly killing him, Espio lands on Robert's head and turns visible, karate chopping Robert in the temple. Robert blacks out from the blow and falls on top of Richard. Richard curses and swipes at Espio with his free arm, but the ninja twitches aside with inhuman speed. He goes to knock Richard out but Jemma catches Espios arm with her robotic one.

Espio grunts and swings his body weight upwards, flipping over Jemma's head. He plans to land on the ground behind Jemma and pull her backwards to land on her back, but the arm is stronger and Espio is yanked backwards and slammed to the ground. Espio draws a blade and rams it into the arm. It sizzles with electricity and Jemma yelps and snarls. Espio vanishes and kicks Jemma in the knee, knocking her to the ground. The robotic hand opens up from a seizure and Espio rolls out of its grip. He turns and swipes Jemma in the head but is kicked away by Nathan. Espio rolls to the ground and gets back to his feet. His head pounds where Nathan has connected and his arm is sore from Jemma's robotic limb. Nathan charges at him.

Espio and Nathan lock hands with one another and they push against each other, seeking the victor by sheer strength. The soldier has the advantage, being taller and heavier, and stronger in that sense, and he bears down all his weight on the chameleon. Espio knows he isn't trained or built for a struggle like this - this is more for Knuckles or Quake. So instead, after resisting a moment, he goes down quickly. Nathan stumbles forward from the force of his own strength pushing him forward. As he stumbles, Espio kicks him forward even more and he collapses into the dirt on his face.

He side swerves to avoid a kick from Christine. Being shorter than the group, they have a hard time hitting Espio and so resort to lashing out with their feet. Espio thinks a moment - he'd only knocked Robert out. The rest are still on their feet. Richard and Nathan will only be down for a moment and Marvin, who he'd knocked down at the start, is running over to join the fight. Espio doesn't want to kill any of the soldiers, and so resorts to knocking them out.

Christine attacks, short jabs with her feet that Espio easily dodges. He swipes at her leg but she jumps back. Espio lunges forward and slices her leg open with an expertly drawn shuriken. He jumps and lands a blow to her head, knocking her out of the fight.

Marvin attacks in a clumsy rage but Espio leaps over him and kicks him forward in the back of his head, knocking him back to the ground. Espio lands, rushes over and jabs Marvin in the jaw. Another one out.

Jemma fires her pistol at Espio. It only missed due to her aiming and firing too quickly. Espio snarls and rushes at her. His speed un-nerves her and he slices her arm with the shuriken , then her thigh and finally leaps upwards and kicks her in a similar fashion to an uppercut, causing her to fly up and then crash onto her back. Espio lands on her then rushes at Richard, who has managed to get the unconscious Robert off of him.

Richard goes to punch Espio. The ninja dodges around it and lands a jab in the soldier's kidney. He winces in pain and Espio thunks him on the head.

Robert, Richard, Jemma, Marvin, Christine. All out. Nathan and Jeffrey are still standing. Jeffrey hasn't fought at all yet, instead leaving it to his friends. Espio's eyes narrow - he dislikes cowards. he attacks Jeffrey, using all his speed. He catches the soldier unprepared and knocks him out in one hit.

He turns to Nathan, who is watching him back. The warrior truly is a huge specimen. He would make a fine soldier, Espio thinks to himself.

All the others are unconscious. Honest soldiers would be able to take much more punishment, but Espio feels that, after years of serving as armed bullies, they've gotten soft. He doubted many of these 'soldiers' has ever received such a beating as the one he has given this group. Espio lowers his hands.

"I can teach you to become soldiers again." Espio says to Nathan, who blinks in surprise. "Human beings, with respect and honour." Espio continues, "Who know when to help as well as when to harm. Pure, honest soldiers, who repent from past mistakes and learn from them.

"G.U.N. is not looking to keep the world safe." Espio continues to Nathan, "It is looking to take over. I have received intelligence that tells me G.U.N. have gotten hold of something powerful and they are using it to take over the world. You guys? Soldiers on the ground? You're just the first wave. You'll bring the cities of this world to it's knees, and then G.U.N. will bring them to ruin and completely take over.

"Think about what I've said. Maybe you can repent from all the people you've hurt. Revive your friends, and have a good long think about it. Were you honest soldiers, I doubt I'd have stood a chance against you today. Farewell, human."

Espio turns away from the fallen group, taking his shuriken out of the leg of the first soldier he'd attacked. He observes the soldier's name. Callum. He looked to be the youngest in the group. Wiping it clean on the grass, he vanishes from sight, with Nathan still watching him, and heads back to the cliff on the edge of the city.


	12. Chapter 12: Captive

A/N: Haven't been working on this as vigorously as I should have been lately. Been distracted by a few things as I wanted a small break from writing. I still hope you guys are enjoying it though. Thanks for the support, those of you who've left reviews or messages. Means a lot :)

 **Chapter Twelve: Captive**

Sonic looks around his cell. Four plain stone walls. Not a door in sight, in the ceiling, walls of the floor. Not a single crack in sight among the slabs of stone that serve as his new home. This cell is brand new - constructed using some of G.U.N.'s best technology. The stone walls, floor and ceiling, Sonic knows, is placed in front of a new metal the scientists of G.U.N. had created. Edgeonium. They had assured Sonic it is durable enough that he would not be about to break through it. And he believed them. He had tried - how could he not? Tails enslaved by the scientists of G.U.N. Knuckles is god knows where - they'd knocked him out when G.U.N. and Eggman had managed to capture Sonic and Tails. The last he'd seen of Knuckles, he had been lying unconscious on the ground.

After the Commander had realised that Sonic was from the past, the large robot had opened up fully. Sonic had never fought such a thing - it's defences had been impossible to breach. Despite Tails, the most accomplished mechanic Sonic knows, running a more than critical eye over the whole mechanism while Sonic and Knuckles had fought valiantly to distract it, he had been unable to find anything. Sonic and Knuckles eventually had gone all out on one spot, the robot's head, but even Knuckles' extremely powerful punches hadn't even dented it.

The robot had swiped at Knuckles and hit, hard, knocking Knuckles clean out and crashing him into the ground. The concrete had given way under the force of the impact and Knuckles had created a small crater in the road where he'd landed. He hadn't even twitched since. Meanwhile, the robot had caught Tails in a powerful tractor energy beam that drew him into a prison compartment in the robot's chest. Sonic, the robot had grabbed while he'd been distracted with Knuckle's defeat and simply encased him in both the robot's hands. Sonic had tried his utmost to smash, spin dash, or break free of the hands, but the material seemed indestructible. It had been the same metal that now outlines the walls, floor and ceiling of his cell. The door is extremely technological - it opens up from the wall. Cuffs spring up around Sonic a second before the door opens so he cannot make a break for it. Against, the cuffs are made of Edgeonium. Whoever visits him then visits him for whatever reason, to give him food or ask questions, then walks out. The door then closes seamlessly against the wall, as if it isn't even there.

This metal is new here. Sonic knows he must learn how to break through it. How to fight it. If only to escape this cell and destroy that robot in revenge for hurting Knuckles and capturing Tails. He begins thinking about everything Tails has ever said about metal. Everything Tails has taught him, and even just mentioned in passing. He tries, but cannot think of anything. he isn't Tails. Tails is the smart one, Tails is the one who thinks things through. Sonic has always just charged in and smashed everything. He curses his own recklessness. If he'd been more like Tails, he'd have been okay in this cell. He'd have been okay...

Knuckles wakes with a groan. He finds himself on the street where he and Sonic had fought the robot. His head hurts immensely where the robot had hit him. He groans again and rubs his head. He looks around - Sonic and Tails are nowhere to be seen. Knuckles scrambles to his feet and heads to the cliff. Everyone will be meeting there soon, and he would need more than himself to break Sonic and Tails free - they'd obviously been captured by Eggman. He wonders briefly why they'd left him out on the streets, but casts it aside and runs as fast as he can to the cliff on the edge of the city.

 _Don't worry Sonic and Tails_ , Knuckles thinks to himself. _I'm coming for you_.


	13. Chapter 13: Wounds of the Past

**Chapter Thirteen: Wounds of the Past**

Shadow observes the cell. It is old and crumbled, tiny by all accounts, barely enough room for two people to stand in. But he cannot take his eyes off the body. _His_ body. The Shadow of this timeline. Twenty years ago, the Sonic of this timeline had helped this Shadow into this lab. Sonic had escaped, promising to return for Shadow soon. But he never did. And Shadow had died in this cell, drained of his power.

Shadow feels a flush of fury. The chains which manacle the other Shadow's body to the wall, are made of no metal he's ever seen before. It's a sort of pearl blue, with silver shimmering through it in thin veins.

The dead Shadow's inhibitor rings lay just a few feet away from the body, on a table between the two Shadows. The inhibitor rings are the gold bands Shadow wears on his wrists and ankles. They keep him alive, but he can remove them for a short while to generate a massive amount of power. He can't have them off for too long though, or the energy will completely drain out of his body and kill him. Which is what had happened to this Shadow.

He can see the bloody marks on the dead Shadow's wrists where he'd struggled with all his strength to reach even one of the rings. Even one would have kept him alive long enough to escape. He'd died reaching something just a foot away from him. The scientist had explained that Shadow's captives had done it on purpose to taunt him. Torture him. They'd known he'd never break free. But he'd tried and died doing it.

Shadow is quiet. A deep calm has settled over him. Rouge had steered way clear of him since observing this calm. It is the calm before the storm. The biggest storm of Shadow's life. The Ultimate Life-Form, brought down by a couple of chains and an old cell. Inside, Shadow is shaking with rage. He wants to draw upon all the unnatural energies he has and lay waste to anything that crosses him. But outside? Calm. A deep, spiritual calm that spells ultimate and hopeless doom for anyone that breaks it.

Shadow finally tears his eyes off the body and leaves the cell. The scientist closes the door behind him.

"What's your name?" Shadow asks the scientist without looking at him.

"James." the scientist replies.

"James." Shadow repeats, "Bury him for me, will you?"

"I'd have buried him years ago if I could. But these chains and restraints were designed to never be opened. You lock them once and that's it. They're locked for good. I'd take them out of the wall, but they're attached to a wall behind the stone wall of the cell that's made of the same metal the cuffs are made of. So no way to get him out. I'm sorry."

"Why do you work here?" Shadow growls, eyes narrowing. The storm draws nearer. Shadow half turns his head and fixes his burning gaze into the eyes of James. If James is afraid, he hides it well.

"If you dislike what they did to Shadow and whoever else, why do you work here?" Shadow asks. James snorts.

"It's work for them or be a slave. Or die." James replies, "I don't like working for them, but I get paid, so I can at least keep my family safe. I hate it here. Everyone does."

"What is this metal you speak of?" Shadow asks.

"Edgeonium." James answers, "It's a new alloy they invented years ago. Supposedly, hardly anything can break, cut or melt it. It's not indestructible, but it's pretty close. G.U.N. uses it for the high end robots, jail cells and other such things."

"How was it discovered?" Shadow asks.

"A meteorite that fell to the planet shortly after G.U.N. started attacking everywhere. It's close to their main base - everyone still wonders how the base survived. The comet wasn't big, but it doesn't need to be. Travelling at that speed, from that distance and with gravity helping it, it wiped out anything within a one hundred and eighty mile radius of it. The base is only ten miles where it landed, so it should have been incinerated. But it survived. It even boggles us scientists how they did it.

"But anyway. The comet had a new sort of ore in it. They created metal from that ore and called it Comendium, named after the comet of course. They mixed it with other metals to form a compound that's light, but extremely difficult to destroy. And called it Edgeonium."

"Has no-one found a way through it yet?" Shadow asks.

"The high end executives of G.U.N. have very special tools to cut through it. But other than those, nope. Nothing."

"And where are these executives? I wouldn't mind one of those very special tools."

"They're nowhere near us." James replies, "They're all safe and sound at the main base. Crazy stuff they build in there. You think this lab is bad? If you ever get there, you'll see."

"Shadow!" Rouge calls. The hedgehog and James turn to her.

"I've...I've found something. You really need to see this." Rouge explains. Shadow blinks. James gulps.

"Is it to do with...?" James asks.

"That stasis tank. Yes." Rouge replies, "Who are you to keep such a thing here?!" she snaps at James, angry all of a sudden, "No wonder the Shadow of this timeline wanted to get to it! Shadow, seriously, come see!"

"What's in that tank?" Shadow asks dangerously to James.

"Something we were ordered to protect at all costs." James replies defensively, "What's inside is valuable to Doctor Eggman far beyond anything else."

Shadow growls and follows Rouge. He hears James begging Shadow not to open the tank then his voice is lost to the distance Shadow has put between himself and James.

They reach the tank. Two tanks. There are two tanks now. Shadow could have sworn he only saw one earlier.

Inside the two tanks are two lifeforms. Shadow's eyes widen. His mouth opens in shock.

One life form is blue, the other, black and red. Shadow is inside one of the tubes, a young, alive Shadow. In stasis presently, but still Shadow. Or a copy of him. He sees Rouge blocking his vision from the blue tank. He growls at Rouge to move. The bat hesitates.

"Don't...be mad." she says, and moves to the side. Shadow's heart stops. The inner storm fades to nothingness, lost in new emotion. Two shades of blue. A deep royal blue on top, sky blue flowing to the bottom. Slender, frail arms and legs. Beautiful, flowing golden hair.

"Shadow..." Rouge begins. Shadow shakes his head, eyes wide. Tears welling up in his eyes. His hand reaches out...

And touches Maria's stasis tank.


	14. Chapter 14: By the Campfire

**Chapter Fourteen: By the Campfire**

Silver and Blaze arrive back at the cliff first. No-one is around. Silver goes to get some good food for everyone and Blaze sets up a rare fire. For fear of being spotted and hunted, Blaze doesn't light fires for meals often. But it has been a long day for the whole group, she says to herself, and they deserve it.

She'd enjoyed purging the city. Destroying all those G.U.N. forces as well as helping the people in the collapsed building has given her an immense feeling of satisfaction. It had been nothing she, Silver or Quake hadn't done before, but now there are more than three of them, she feels better knowing that more people have been reached and helped, and more of G.U.N. have been taken out.

Silver returns, using his telekinesis to carry a whole load of food. Blaze laughs.

"And where did you get all that, mister?" she asks with amusement. Silver places the pile on the floor and starts ripping cans and packages open.

"Heh. Some G.U.N. soldiers were kind enough to give it to me." he replies. They start cooking the food.

"I hope someone will be back soon. Don't want all this food to go to waste." Blaze says.

"It's fine." Silver replies, "They should be back soon."

Omega lands in front of them ten minutes later. Silver frowns.

"Where are Rouge and Shadow?" he asks.

"Both remained behind." the robot replies in his mechanical voice, "They are in the laboratory of G.U.N. and Doctor Eggman, in the city to the north. Both are safe, but both have discovered something. Something important to Shadow."

"Something important to Shadow?" Silver repeats.

"City to the north..." Blaze says aloud.

"Do you know what they found, Omega?" Silver asks.

"Negative." Omega answers, "I left to update you of what's going on. Shadow and Rouge remained. they await my return shortly."

"Well, you don't eat like we do, but I did think to bring you some oil in case you needed any." Silver says. He points to some yellow grimy cans off to the side of the pile of food.

"That is very good oil. However, Tails repaired me before coming here and I am still in perfect working condition. I will save the oil for when I require it." Omega says, "Thank you, Silver."

Silver smiles in return.

Quake lands next. Silver and Blaze cheer at the sight of their friend.

"Where's Espio?" Blaze asks.

"Should be on his way." Quake says, "A situation arose and we had to split up. He told me to wait for him here." He glances at Omega.

"Where are Rouge and Shadow?" he asks.

"We'll update everyone when everyone's here." Silver says. Omega and Quake agree.

Espio arrives next. He has a look of immense satisfaction on his face, similar to how Blaze feels.

"Espio! You made it! What happened?!" Quake exclaims in relief. Espio smiles.

"A story for when everyone is here. A most interesting tale. However, I will say this - I believe I changed some lives today." the ninja replies.

Half an hour passes and no-one else turns up. The friends on the cliff eat and restore their strength. Espio dozes for a while, something that surprises Quake.

"I did not expect a ninja to fall to slumber so quickly." he says. Espio smiles with his eyes closed.

"I expended a bit of energy whilst changing those lives. I want to be at my best when we venture out again."

"Guys!" a panicked voice puts everyone on alert. Knuckles scrambles up the cliff and dashes over to them, a look of dread and panic on his face.

"Sonic! Tails! Captured!" he says, breathing heavily with the exertion he made to get to them quickly, "Eggman! New robot! Too strong, couldn't do anything!"

"Alright, calm down Knuckles." Quake says. Knuckles takes several deep breaths and calms down somewhat.

"The robot knocked me out and left me on the street. They took Sonic and Tails captive. God know's where. They were gone when I came to. Got here as fast as I could. That robot... it was strong on a whole new level. I couldn't even dent it."

"Edgeonium." Silver growls. Knuckles looks at him, confused.

"A new metal here." Blaze explains, "Well, new to you. G.U.N. makes everything important or high end out of it. There is no known method of destroying it. That robot's armour is likely made of Edgeonium. It wasn't lack of strength on your part Knuckles. Just their materials."

Silvers gives Knuckles a large piece of food. Knuckles considers it a moment, then wolfs it down. He looks angry.

"I'll find a way through that hunk of junk's armour." he says fiercely as he devours the meat, "I'll get Sonic and Tails back. I failed them, and I'll get them out, no matter what."

"We'll find a way, Knuckles." Quake says, "Now come get some rest. We'll get Sonic and Tails in time."

Silver goes to Omega with some food.

"Take these to Rouge and Shadow. They need something." Silver says. The robot agrees and takes off.

Espio explains to the group what happened with the soldiers, his fight with them and his speech to the remaining one. The group is pleased.

"I think you struck something in them today." Quake says, "Like a true warrior, you pass your teachings on to the lesser knowing. I'm impressed."

"But other than that, you sure taught them a lesson." Knuckles says, nodding approval.

"Why weren't you with him when this happened Quake?" Blaze asks.

So Quake explained how they'd found the young girl, with Espio acting as an invisible lookout guard. He said how he'd freed the girl and then the soldiers had turned up, with Espio saying he'd deal with them and telling Quake to get the girl home and to meet him on the cliff.

"What did you two get up to?" Quake asks Silver and Blaze.

"Just ransacked half of the G.U.N. army in the city over the river." Blaze smirks. Silver nods.

"We saved a group of people from a collapsing building also. Got them some food and fires. They may help if they see us again." Silver says.

"Let's hope so." Quake replies, "We need all the help we can get. You guys coming from the past has been a huge help." he adds to Knuckles and Espio. "Sonic and Tails being captured aside, we've covered four times as much ground as we would have usually."

"We need a plan to get Sonic and Tails out of there." Knuckles says, staring at his huge fists, "If I'm to guess, they'll have made their jail cells with the same metal that robot was made of. Escape-proof cell, even for Sonic."

"Hey guys." they turn at the new voice and see Rouge.

"Hey." Quake says, "We just sent Omega back with some food for you and Shadow. He says you found something at that lab." Rouge sighs.

"Yes. Shadow has found something of priceless value to him. He won't leave it."

"Must be really important." Silver says, "I wonder if it is the same thing the Shadow of this timeline was trying to get to with Sonic."

"It is." Rouge says.

"Can we use it against G.U.N. and Doctor Eggman?" Silver asks. Rouge's eyes widen with fear at the suggestion and she shakes her head.

"No. Shadow would never allow it." she replies.

"So what do we do now?" Blaze asks, "Sonic and Tails are captured, Shadow is occupied at the moment. And we still need to find a way to take out the base way to the east."

"Shadow first." Quake says, "We need him if he's as powerful as the Shadow from this timeline. What's become of that Shadow incidentally?" he asks Rouge, "I know G.U.N. captured him but I've not heard of his fate."

"He passed away trying to escape the cell." Rouge says tearfully.

"Aye. That's mighty tragic that." Silver says.

"But the scientist who showed us to Shadow's cell and the stasis tank he was trying to get to said that some G.U.N. Executives have these special tools which can cut through Edgeonium." Rouge says. Silver's, Blaze's and Quake's jaws all drop.

"What techniques did you use to get that kind of information out of him? Talk about a master interrogator!" Quake says in astonishment.

"I didn't interrogate him. He hates working for G.U.N. so anything we asked him, he told us. He even said he would have buried Shadow's body if he could but he's stuck in that cell thanks to that awful metal."

"Poor soul." Silver says.

"Can you tell us anything about that stasis tank?" Quake asks Rouge.

"There are two tanks we're interested in." Rouge says, "One contains a copy of Shadow. A perfect copy. We don't know what it is or how powerful it is but it's asleep at the moment. The other tank..." she pauses, with a look of such sorrow in her eyes that Quake quickly says to her she doesn't have to tell them.

"It's not my place to tell you." she replies, "Shadow will tell you, when he's ready."

"So, let's go get Shadow then we can try busting Sonic and Tails out of their prison." Knuckles says, getting to his feet. Espio stands as well.

"Let's go. Rouge, lead the way." the ninja says.


	15. Chapter 15: The Work of GUN

A/N: Not sure about this chapter. I feel it needs something...more. give it a read and PM or Review an opinion. :) thanks for the continued support, almost 1,000 views that's crazy!

 **Chapter Fifteen: The work of G.U.N.**

Tails is sweating from the work. He tries heaving the slab of metal again, but is too drained and drops to his knees. His strength is in his tails, not his legs, but his tails have been painfully strapped up to stop him escaping. He can't escape anyway - he's been chained to a chunk of metal eight times bigger than he is and his job is to move it half a mile across the lab.

Tails stops to regain his breath. He saw Sonic, his beloved best friend, thrown into a cell like a piece of rubbish, like a piece of filth, and then he himself, Tails, strapped in cuffs and led to the slaves area and put to work. Easy things at first, fixing broken machines and tinkering with metal. But they got harder and now he's heaving this great lump of metal.

Tails tries to push with his legs and makes some headway. He's had no punishment yet from his lack of progress but he's expecting it any time now. The lump budges an inch or so then remains stubborn as ever. Tails pants heavily. He hears one of G.U.N.'s Commanders tell someone to help Tails. A few humans come and together they manage to get it moving.

"Sir if you'd just free his tails and let him fly it across the lab I'm sure he'll be much quicker!" one of the slaves tells the Commander.

"And let him escape as soon as he's off the chain?!" the Commander bellows.

"He can't escape with all the flying sentries around, sir!" the slave points out. He's right. Thirty flying sentry turrets are in place purely for the sake of Tails. They have him now and won't relinquish him so easily.

The Commander thinks on it, then nods. He barks at some slaves to undo Tails' cuffs. They do so and Tails tries not to look too pleased. He lifts himself into the air and pulls the metal with renewed vigour. He gets it going quite quickly and soon it's on the correct side of the lab.

He is put to work then fixing weapons and gadgets in disrepair. The Commander even has Tails set up his own workshop in a corner, and soon everyone flocks to him for advice and repairs.

Tails comforts himself in the knowledge that, whilst he didn't enjoy who he worked for, he is happy he can still make a difference to people's lives. As he repairs someone's rifle, which was considered priceless to the human as it had been in his family for generations, Tails feels a great sense of satisfaction at the level of gratitude the human gives him. He hopes he can figure a way to get Sonic out soon. He just needs a sample of that metal the robot's made out of - he'd learned all the cells were lined with the stuff as well to prevent any kind of escape. Once he had his hands on a bar of the metal, he could work out methods of trying to break it.

A soldier calls Tails' name and he immediately flies up to meet the soldier. His smile, brought on by the last customer's kindness, vanishes. He never smiles at the soldiers, rarely even looks at them. The soldier reports to Tails that the Commander wants to see him. Tails silently nods and heads towards the Commander's office.

Tails is admitted after a brief knock on the door. The Commander is in his chair, with his back to Tails.

"We're due to have a visit." the Commander begins, without looking at Tails. The Commander is busy on a computer in front of him and his back is facing Tails.

"A visit from who?" Tails asks.

"One of the High Generals from upstairs. They're the most important people in G.U.N. so I need you to ensure the slave work area is spotlessly clean for his arrival in a few hours.

"That's not much notice to clean the entire floor." Tails says, annoyed.

"True, but I'm sure you'll manage. Use your spinning tails as mops and the floor will be clean in no time." the Commander laughs at his own joke. Tails grits his teeth and bites his tongue to stop himself saying something stupid.

"Enough jokes though." The Commander says after a moment, "The General is coming to discuss a very top secret project with me." he turns to face Tails.

"I want you to be in that meeting with me." he says. Tails blinks in surprise.

"Why ever for?" the fox asks.

"Well you're not getting out of here anyway and you're the most valuable slave we have. And we may need your mechanical mind to make everything work. Don't tell anyone though, it's top secret and very powerful. Dismissed." the Commander turns away from Tails and continues with his computer work. Tails silently lets himself out of the office. He thinks about what the Commander had said.

"A High General from upstairs?" Tails mutters to himself. Upstairs. As far as he knows, the High Generals are only based in the central base Quake and Silver spoke about.

Am I in the Central Base? Tails thinks to himself in shock. If he is, then this is perfect. He's invited to a top secret meeting about something very powerful. Sonic is in the cells far below him. He has access to the materials storage - all he needs is an excuse and he can get hold of as much of the powerful metal as he wants. Tails smiles to himself, as he realises he can plan an attack from the inside out. He would need more than himself and Sonic to do it though. Oddly enough, if Knuckles had been captured also, they could have done it.

Why did they leave him behind? Tails wonders for the hundredth time. It seemed strange to take two of them and just leave Knuckles unconscious in the dirt. He decided he'd experiment with every spare moment he got. He will invent a way through that strange metal keeping Sonic captive. With a weapon like that, he could free all the prisoners, and the slaves. With enough weapons to distribute, they could make a small army against G.U.N. Tails smiles and starts planning.

Sonic starts awake. His door is being opened again. The cuffs appear in place, locking him in position. A soldier comes in with a tray of food. He drops it on the floor and leaves without barely looking at Sonic. The door closes and the cuffs disappear. Sonic drops to the floor and shifts through the food. He frowns when he sees a piece of paper in his rice bowl.

His picks it up, unfolds it and reads to himself:

 _You are to be escorted to the Meeting Chamber in precisely two hours. You will take your place in that meeting and then return to your cell._

Nothing else is said. Sonic frowns, wondering why they would warn him of a meeting he was to go in. He expected them to just drag him off to wherever they needed him.

This could be his chance to escape though. If he is in that meeting, he could get out before anyone can grab him. He'd have to run his fastest, but he could do it. Sonic nods to himself and starts stretching and exercising, readying himself.


	16. Chapter 16: The Meeting

**Chapter Sixteen: The Meeting**

Tails sighs in frustration as his circular saw blade melts under the heat it's generating. It's the third tool he's lost trying to cut through this stupid bar of metal. He'd told the supplier he'd needed a bar to see how it folds and bends to craft new things with. He told them, honestly, that he wanted to experiment with such a fine material and he could work wonders with it if he knew how. So they allowed him to work. He has a small private room behind his workshop. Another slave who is good with mechanics is covering the workshop while he is busy - Tails and the man are friendly, bonded by their shared knowledge and love of mechanics.

Alas, everything Tails has tried to break, cut or melt the bar has so far failed. He can't even dent it with a hammer. He strikes his water bottle in frustration with a grunt of annoyance. It spills on the metal, soaking it. Tails works on an energy weapon he is building. He'll be building a lot of them, for he is going to give them to the slaves and prisoners. It's a simple pistol weapon, recharges from the air and fires superheated shots. He's built one and already tried it on the bar. The bar had heated up to an untouchable temperature but the metal had remained solid when Tails used tools to try and work it.

He is also working on a basic but strong form of armour. It attaches to the body via a DNA scanner. When placed on a body, it scans the DNA of that person, then builds up around them to form a very protective casing. It's not metal or rock, but a compound of the two Tails made. Not as strong as the unbreakable metal, but strong enough to endure several shots from G.U.N.'s troops.

Tails is called up to attend the meeting. He frowns to himself and puts the gun down. He looks at the soaked metal and frowns. It looks softer, like it's melting.

Water melts it? Water? Tails wonders to himself. He promises to check on it when he gets back.

The door opens but this time the cuffs do not appear. Sonic stands upright, waiting for the soldiers to escort him. He would maintain a calm, collected act. On the way to, during or after the meeting, if anything caught the soldier's attention for even a second, he would be off.

The soldiers take his arms and cuff them to their own arms. Sonic smirks to himself - he is fast and strong enough to drag the soldiers with him on his escape path. He puts on a weak, exhausted act, as if standing and walking is a chore for him. The soldiers assist him to the Meeting room. As they climb towards it, Sonic smiles to himself.

Tails enters the Meeting Room. It's a large room with a circular, black glass table filling the centre of it. The walls are made of tinted glass, making it very difficult to see within from outside. Several soft, yellow ceiling lamps illuminate the room. Several humans in suits are already sat but Tails doesn't see the Commander. He enters a moment later, taking his seat to the left of the one at the head of the table. He gestures Tails to sit down opposite him. The fox does so, his mind still racing to figure out why he is here. The Commander is smiling knowingly - a smile Tails doesn't like at all.

The table is soon filled with people and the only seat unoccupied is the head chair, the chair to Tails' right and the Commander's left. A large man steps into the room and the chatter the other humans had been having stops instantly. All eyes turn to him. Tails looks at the High General.

He is large, muscular, and wearing a black suit with a white shirt under what looks like a camouflaged over skin. The skin distorts the suit slightly, and completely covers the High General head to toe. Tails wonders if it's some high-tech armour.

The High General looks around the table. he sees Tails and looks him in the eye. Tails doesn't break eye contact, and keeps staring at the man even as he stares back. The High General walks to his chair and takes his eyes off Tails. He addresses the rest of the table.

"Those of you who do not know." he begins, "This meeting is to clarify G.U.N.'s next movements. I've heard of the recent battles in cities close by. Silver the Hedgehog and Blaze the Cat have been seen in that area. It is said they chased out most of the army in that city. I know they're a pain but when our new weapon is put into place, they will be easily dealt with.

"The weapon I speak of is currently in stasis in the lab north of here. When the scientists there awaken it, it will be the most devastating thing we have at our disposal."

"But sir, what manner of weapon is it?" one of the men ask, "Is it a gun, a robot?"

"It's organic. A living creature. A combination of living creatures actually. We are using blood fusions to increase it's power. Most of its strength we got from one prisoner and is the creature's design. However, we have another joining us shortly who will provide the creature with more strength. With those two combined it will be strong enough to capture Blaze and Silver. With their blood fused in with it, it will be unstoppable."

As the humans applaud and nod their approval, Tail's eyes narrow as his mind races with the infomation he's been given. the weapon sounds like a hybrid, a creature with the blood, and therefore powers, of several people. Tails knows Silver and Blaze are a deadly combination. But the creature would need to be already very powerful to stop either of them, let alone both at the same time, which is what the High General seems to be indicating. What creatures could give this hybrid enough power to take down those two both at once?

The High General said the creature's base form is of the first creature it took the blood and powers of. And there is another creature joining them, in that very room, who would provide another blood sample to increase the hybrid's power. Tails looks at the Commander, who smiles knowingly again.

The door bursts open and two men walk in supporting something between them. Tails sees a flash of blue before the humans get up and, seemingly on purpose, block his view. Tails had recognised that blue with a shot of horror. It couldn't be him...

Humans seem to forget that Tails can fly. So he does so, clearing the humans enough to see Sonic struggling against the humans surrounding him. A few carried needles, ready to take his blood to feed to the hybrid, wherever it is.

Tails calls out Sonic's name, but the Commander grabs him by one of his tails, stopping his flight.

"Don't be a fool." the Commander growls, "Do you want to get yourself killed?"

"That's Sonic!" Tails yells, and struggles against the Commander's iron grip.

Sonic hears Tails struggling and hears his cry of pain as the Commander grabs his tails. Sonic yells in frustration and jumps to try and break free of the humans trying to stab him with needles. As he jumps though, several people grab his legs and pull him back down. He and Tails have a half second of eye contact before Sonic disappears under the writhing mass of humans trying to get to him.

Fortunately for him, there are too many humans for any of them to get a good shot at him. They are all getting in each other's way. Sonic trips a few of them over and tries breaking free of the crowd. But he feels a sharp sting in his upper arm and turns to see a blood filled needle being pulled out of him, the holder of the needle having a triumphant grin on his face. Sonic growls and kicks the syringe out of the human's hand, bruising it.

He sees someone catch the syringe. Sonic tries to break free but is surrounded by too many people. He sees Tails still struggling with the Commander and sees someone stick a clean syringe in Tails' arm.

Rage descends over Sonic and he sees red as he kicks out full force against the group of humans trying to restrain him. He breaks free and rushes at Tails, but dodges a quick bullet fired at him by the Commander.

"We've been hunting you for twenty years and now we have you, Sonic the Hedgehog!" the Commander says. He holds the gun to Tail's head and Sonic freezes. He lets the humans restrain him.

"If you hurt him..." Sonic growls.

"Oh I won't." the Commander says, "Not yet."

Sonic allows himself to be dragged out by the humans, most of which were nursing the wounds he'd given them. They escort him back to his cell and throw him against the wall. The door closes before he's even stood back up.

He cries in frustration. Tails is in danger because of him. He doesn't know why the humans took his blood. But Tails might, if they discussed it before he arrived. Can't be anything good, that's for sure.

Sonic kicks the wall. It hurts his feet and doesn't mark the wall, so he regrets it. He sits on his stone bed, ignoring the pain in his toes.

"Tails." he says to himself, "I'm sorry Tails." he closes his eyes.


	17. Chapter 17: The Super Weapon

**Chapter Seventeen: The Super Weapon**

"Who was she to you?" James asks.

Shadow closes his eyes and remains silent a moment. Then he opens them again and speaks.

"She was my only friend." he replies, "I didn't spend a whole lot of time with her. She was dying, the result of an incurable condition she had. I was created to find a cure for her."

"What happened?" James asks.

"G.U.N. raided the ARK." Shadow continues, "They killed a lot of people that day. They were afraid of me, thought I was too powerful. So they'd been sent to exterminate all the work and any workers who resisted. They saw Maria. Chased her as she ran. I ran with her - how could I not? It was my duty to protect her and keep her safe, my duty to ensure no harm befell her." Shadow closes his eyes.

"Go on." James encourages. A pause.

"We got to the escape pod room. Professor Gerald Robotnik, my creator and Maria's grandfather, had told me to escape with Maria in a pod down to Earth. But she pushed me into a pod, made me make a promise to her. The soldier's caught up. She pulled the lever to release me. I saw the gunshot pierce her body. She fell to the floor and I was ejected into space, sent down to Earth.

"It was the worst day of my life. All my years, I've believed Maria is dead. How is she here, in the future? How did she get here? Why is she here, in this godforsaken place?" he places a hand on her stasis tube.

James is silent.

"I don't know why she's here, or even who she is." he replies after a while, "We were just told to protect her and ensure nothing happened to her. Punishment would be most severe if we ever failed. So we protected her. A threat like that kept us from asking questions. We just know she is precious to Doctor Eggman. And now, I know she's even more precious to you, Shadow the Hedgehog."

"She died protecting me. It should have been the other way around. They were after me. Afraid of me. Yet I'm alive, and Maria paid the price I was supposed to pay."

Shadow looks at the other Shadow in the tube next to Maria.

"Care to tell me what this is about?" Shadow asks.

"That is top secret." James says. Before Shadow can chase him for information, James continues.

"It's just in it's base form right now. It's a creature designed to absorb the blood of multiple creatures. From that blood, this creature inherits any special abilities the creature whose blood it has received might have had. It's base form is you, Shadow, because we knew you were already very powerful. It was a good baseframe to start with. We were planning to get a few more samples into it, then send it out hunting to gather blood on it's own."

"Who's blood would you have sampled it with in addition to my own?" Shadow asks.

"We'd have started with Sonic. He is almost equal to you in skill and ability so we figured by adding Sonic to you we'd double the effects. Double the speed, abilities, strength you two have."

"Anyone else other than Sonic?" Shadow asks.

"Just anyone else with special skills or knowledge that would add to the creature's power."

"Does it have a name?"

"No. Not that I know of anyway. We just refer to it as 'the creature' or 'the hedgehog'.

"What is it's purpose?" Shadow asks.

"It's designed as one of G.U.N.'s ultimate weapons." James replies, "It was scheduled to be set loose when it is strong enough to gather even more strength on it's own, then set about crushing any who resist G.U.N. at all once and for all. They have other powerful weapons like this at their Central HQ, but this place is the only place with the tech needed to create a biological weapon like this. It's taken years to develop using even just your blood. I don't think he'll ever wake though. since we were going to use Sonic's blood next and Sonic hasn't been seen for twenty years, it seems unlikely he will eve reach his next stage."

James pauses.

"Unless..." he begins. Shadow looks at him. James is staring worrying at Shadow back.

"You're not the Shadow of this timeline, are you?" he asks. Shadow shakes his head.

"You know that." Shadow replies, "That Shadow is trapped in there." he points in the direction of the cell where the dead Shadow is still manacled to the wall.

"You got here by time-travel? Silver brought you here? Do you have a Sonic in your timeline? Did Silver bring him here too?"

Shadow's expression answers James. James shakes his head.

"This is bad. If G.U.N. have somehow captured your Sonic, they can take his blood and bring it here regardless! We could still wake him up! Part of me would love to, to see such a magnificent creation at work...but it's for the wrong purpose. There's nothing we can do to him and he's harmless so long as he stays asleep. Which he will do, until I give the computer the command to wake him. But still. We must not let him wake up. If they wake this thing up, along with the other Super Weapons they have at HQ, it could mean the end of any form of resistance against G.U.N. in existence. Thousands of innocent people will die."

"What are these other Super Weapons you speak of?" Shadow asks.

"I know nothing about them." James answers, "I'm a biologist, not a mechanic so I've nothing to do with robots usually. But that's all I can guess they would be. Very powerful robots, no doubt made from head to foot in Edgeonium. And with Doctor Eggman helping them, their robots will be devastating indeed."

"So do G.U.N. plan to launch an army or something against the rest of the planet?" Shadow asks in horror. James nods.

"Any who don't submit immediately will be destroyed. No-one will have a chance. I'd suggest the Chaos Emeralds to you - I know of your Super Form when you use all seven - but they got destroyed in a special atomic explosion with energy gathered from the Emeralds themselves. There are no Chaos Emeralds on this world. And G.U.N. has the Master Emerald. The Knuckles of this time didn't stand a chance. He perished years and years ago. Poor soul."

"Shadow!" Shadow hears a mechanical voice greet him. He turns to see Omega landing. Omega offers something to Shadow. Frowning, he takes it and realises it's a warm burger.

"Eat." the robot says, "Where is Rouge?"

"She took off to update the others. We figured you weren't coming back for a while." Shadow replies.

"Hello, James." Omega greets the scientist, who responds with a quick wave.

Shadow and James quickly fill Omega in on the doom that's asleep right behind them and of the other Super Weapons at the HQ.

"Shadow." the robot says, "I come with negative news. Sonic and Tails have been captured by G.U.N.. Knuckles came to report it on the cliff a few hours ago. I rushed here as fast as I could to come and get you. We need the blue hedgehog and his orange friend."

"G.U.N. has Sonic?!" James asks in fear. Omega confirms it.

"This is bad." James says again, "Bad, bad, bad. They'll have taken his blood for sure. They'll be on their way here! Shadow! Omega! You must do your utmost to stop anyone reaching these tanks! I will help too! I'll get my battle armour!" he rushes off to get his things.

"No-one is getting to Maria or that faker." Shadow growls.

"Attack Mode Initiated." Omega says, "Hostile forces will be eliminated." his arms rotate and Shadow hears some clunking as he readies his many weapons. Shadow flexes his hands, ready for a fight. He remembers the burger and wolfs half of it down. He places the other half on the table.

They hear shouting outside. Shadow tenses. Omega draws his machine guns, the first of many weapons he has. His shoulders arm themselves with rocket pods. Two laser cannons load themselves next to Omega's eyes.

The doors burst open and robots surge into the room. Shadow sees the High General and heavily armoured guards surrounding a scientist carrying what looks like a red syringe. It must be Sonic's blood.

"James was right." Shadow says.

"They must not pass." Omega agrees. He opens fire on the incoming robots. Many go down, but plenty more take their places. Shadow skates over to the protected scientist. He Spin Dashes into the group, but the High General, who's in front, takes the attack like it's nothing. Shadow grunts and the High General swipes him aside. His armour must be through the roof, Shadow thinks to himself. He dives and Homing Attacks on of the other guards. It stumbles the guard but doesn't deal much damage. Shadow needs more fire-power.

"Pea brained humans." Omega says and fires lasers into the group. Several guards go down but the High General still isn't fazed by Omega's attacks.

"Chaos Spear!" Shadow yells, throwing darts of yellow Chaos energy at the group. They hit the group at sections and explode, finally dealing damage to them. The scientist flinches. Shadow growls and dives down. He lands on the floor, spins, tripping the scientist over and grabs the syringe in mid-air. The soldiers all pile on top of him, more to stop him escaping than to hurt him.

"Shadow." he hears Omega as the robot shoots the soldiers in the back, "Use your power."

"What power?" the High General snaps.

"This one." Shadow replies in a whisper. Only the soldiers nearest him hear him and their eyes widen in fear.

"Chaos..." Shadow glows red. His fist is still clutching the syringe, but he pulls both arms towards his body, head angling down. Red and white fire bursts around him, with the soldiers frantically getting in each others way as they try to escape.

"BLAAAAASSSSSSTTTT!" Shadow bellows, unleashing an explosive dome of Chaos energy that sends the scientist, all the soldiers and even the High General flying. They land on the other side of the room as James comes out in a high tech mech suit. He sees Shadow with the syringe.

"Destroy it!" he yells. Shadow goes to smash the syringe on the floor when something extremely fast and solid collides with him. Shadow goes flying high and crashes through the ceiling. Whatever had hit Shadow is nowhere to be seen.

Shadow crashes back through the ceiling towards the High General a moment later. He looks in a bad way. The High General catches him and throws him fifty metres horizontally and he goes through a stone wall. The scientist gets up and rushes to the syringe, which had landed unharmed on the floor when Shadow had been attacked. The scientist picks it up. James stands between the scientist and the creature in the stasis tube, looking formidable in his battle mech suit.

"I'll handle them!" the High General shouts at the scientist, "Just get that syringe into that creature!"

James readies his mech to protect the creature. Omega joins him and Shadow faces the High General.

The High General runs towards Shadow in his super armour. Shadow tenses and leaps over the High General as he swipes a powerful punch at Shadow. Omega catches the High General's fist and fires his Machine Gun directly at the High General's chest but it doesn't do a thing. The High General laughs, and pushes the hand Omega has caught forward. The sheer strength of whatever technology he is using crushes Omega's arm in on itself, rendering it useless. Omega looks at the High General and fires lasers onto him. His transparent armour glows red where the lasers connect, but it deals no damage.

"Doesn't anything get through this stuff!" Shadow cries in frustration.

"Not really." James says as he locks into hand to hand combat with the High General, "They wear the absolute best armour we make. Hardly anything gets through it."

"NOTHING gets through it!" The High General laughs as he effortlessly pushes James's mech backwards with his sheer strength. Shadow sees the scientist working on injecting the blood into the creature and leaps at him. The High General spots him and throws James in his mech at Shadow. The two crash into each other and goes flying into the wall.

Omega grabs the scientist and holds a huge cannon to his head. The High General laughs, and vanishes in a blink of blue light.

"Oh no!" James cries, "Omega look out!

The High General blinks into existence behind Omega - a short range teleport. He stabs something into Omega that sends powerful electric pulses through the robot. Omega shudders, an collapses, completely out of power.

Shadow sees red. He hurtles at the High General, who teleports away again. Shadow vanishes too. He has a short range teleport, but hasn't used it in years. Not since his first battle with Sonic, all those years ago.

The High General reappears. Shadow re-materialises behind him and goes to attack. But something must have warned the High General of the danger, for he spins around and catches Shadow's foot.

Shadow grunts and shots Chaos Spears into the High General. The explosions knock Shadow and the High General away from each other. Shadow and the High General get to their feet. James goes over to intercept the scientist at the stasis tube - he is over halfway finished priming the tube to accept the blood. Before he gets anywhere near the scientist though, the High General, without looking at him, raises his arm and fires a small missile that barrels James in his mech suit backwards, crashing him into the wall. He lays there, motionless.

Shadow knows it's crunch time. He removes two of his inhibitor rings and builds up a lot of energy. He charges at the High General and buries him in a colossal explosion. The sound is deafening and the High General roars.

Shadow jumps backwards as the High General is buried in flames of energy. He puts his inhibitor rings back on and throws a barrage of Chaos Spears at the High General. Another explosion sends the High General flying through the wall, landing next to the unconscious James.

Shadow hurtles for the scientist and grabs him. To his shock the scientist is laughing.

"Too late, hedgehog." he sneers. Shadow gasps and looks around. The liquid in the creature's tank is swirling with red tendrils. The creature absorbs these tendrils and glows a moment, then returns to it's dormant state.

Shadow throws the scientist to the ground and charges a very strong Chaos Spear, shaking with anger.

"You've no idea what you've done, human." Shadow growls.

"I have every idea of what I've done." the scientist sneers from the ground, "This creature will wreak havoc on any who aren't with G.U.N.!"

The High General knocks Shadow to the ground - his armour seems to have finally taken some damage. Cracks are visible in the otherwise transparent armour and the High General looks angry. He punches Shadow in the side of the head, in an attempt to knock him out. Shadow retains consciousness though.

"The Super Weapon can deal with all of them when it wakes!" Shadow hears the High General say to the scientist, "You injected Sonic's and Tails' blood into it?"

"Yes sir!" the scientist cries and they leave the laboratory. Shadow looks at Maria's stasis tank. It hadn't been harmed in the battle. Omega is in a sitting position, lightly smoking and sparking at the base of Maria's tank.

Shadow pays silent tribute to his fallen friend a moment, then gets to his feet. Sonic's and Tails' blood has gone into this creature, Shadow thinks as he observes the mirror image of himself, which means it won't just be fast, it'll be smart too.

He looks at the creature. Since absorbing the blood, it hadn't stirred. But with Shadow, Sonic and Tails now in it, Shadow is sure it will wake up soon. Shadow is sure the combined speed and abilties of Sonic and himself would be enough to take out Silver or Blaze, the next targets. With Tails's brain added to their combined speed, it would be a formidable opponent already. Even without Silver's telekinesis and Blaze's pyrokinesis.

Shadow thinks what it would be able to do if it got hold of everyone - Quake and Knuckles - it's strength would be insane as well as fighting abilities. Espio - it would be even faster, combining the speed of Sonic, himself and Espio and would be able to turn invisible. As well as throw blades with pinpoint accuracy. If he gets Rouge, he may gain the ability to fly. Omega can't offer anything to him, being non organic but the fact that Omega is out of the fight poses a huge problem.

"This thing is one giant weapon." Shadow says. He goes to check on James. He is still unconscious. Shadow places a hand on the human's cheek.

"Thank you for all your help." he says to the blacked out scientist. He then turns to leave.

He sees most of the group waiting for him. Silver, Blaze, Quake, Espio, Rouge and Knuckles. Sonic and Tails are still captured and Omega lies in ruins behind him. He quickly shows Rouge, who is devastated.

"You all need to leave." Shadow says, "We do not want to be anywhere near here when that thing wakes up." he gestures to the creature, which still looks like a copy of him.

"What is it?" Silver asks.

"A Super Weapon of G.U.N." Shadow replies, "It absorbs the blood of others and gains their abilities and strength. It already has me, Sonic and Tails in it, which means it'll be too fast for any of us to fight. Including myself.

"We need to get out of here." Shadow says again, "Come on let's find Sonic." he heads to the door.

"What happened to James?" Rouge asks.

"he was knocked out in the fight with the High General, now let's go!" Shadow hisses.

"A High General was here?!" Silver, Blaze and Quake all exclaim.

"Yes." Shadow replies, making gestures to get out, "Now come on! We need to go!"

"He's right, we should move." Quake says and they all head out.

Silence. Darkness as the lab's lights go out.

And the creature's eyes snap open.


	18. Chapter 18: Edgeonium's Bane

**Chapter Eighteen: Edgeonium's Bane**

Tails hammers furiously onto the metal. He'd crafted two hundred energy weapons in just a short amount of time - he'd made a duplicator machine, so he'd perfected the design then just passed it through that for a couple of hours. G.U.N.'s technology truly is incredible and with Tail's mind, he can work wonders with the materials and energy sources.

He'd also crafted the armour. Two hundred sets. He doubted there'd be enough to go around, but they all snapped on and off easily enough. Now he is making gadgets for all of his friends.

He smiles to himself in a fierce, determined way. He'd done it. The Edgeonium bar lies in two pieces next to his bed. The water had soaked into it while Tails and Sonic were at the meeting. He'd returned, extremely angry at G.U.N., upset for Sonic, to find the water had completely softened the metal. It amazes Tails that such a simple element could bring this incredible material down. He had resolved to experiment further when he has the chance.

But for now, he is softening fifty more bars in a tub of water. He hopes to shape it into things that will help his friends. He's used part of the first bar to create his own extremely powerful energy rifle. He isn't keen on fighting a war, as this is effectively just that, a war against G.U.N., but he has to help Sonic in any way he can.

The Commander had known. Tails realises now. He'd known Sonic was coming to the meeting, he's known they were going to hurt him and draw blood from him. That was that knowing smile, that horrible smile Tails hated. He'd been led out of the meeting after Sonic's departure and after the High General had explained what it was for. They'd taken his blood too, although he hadn't realised that until he felt his arm bleeding. The High General had then left to oversee the blood being put into the Hybrid Super Weapon.

The Commander had told Tails that he would be shown to the Super Weapons in the Armoury far above them sometime later. This confirms to Tails that he and Sonic are in the main base.

He finishes it - a special blade for Espio. It can vanish from sight with him when he turns invisible. And has special properties that allow it to cut straight through Edgeonium. He polishes it, and tests it on the remainder of the first bar. It cuts clean in half.

He bends some Edgeonium into four rings and shapes them. He then pours a magnificent amount of energy into them, so they glow golden instead of Edgeonium's silvery black colour. These are for Shadow. Instead of needing to remove his inhibitor rings to become more powerful, these rings would sustain his life force and allow him to unleash devastating amounts of energy without barely depleting. That would make Shadow extremely formidable with his knowledge of Chaos Energy.

Tails thinks of Chaos Energy, and holds up the Emerald in his hand. The yellow Chaos Emerald he'd removed from his plane before they'd arrived there. He had to get it to Sonic. Sonic could Chaos Control into their timeline and gather the rest of them, hoping Shadow still has his green one. He knows Sonic is now locked back up in his cell, but he can't find a way down to him. The Commander has been sure to keep Tails away from anyone who may lead him to Sonic.

The Commander misjudged though. Tails is more resourceful than the Commander thinks, and he's contacted a sympathetic prison guard who also hates working for G.U.N. The guard had promised to deliver a message to Sonic and he would arrange for Tails to go and see him.

Tails works on Shadow's new rings until they're finished, then ponders what to do next. Espio and Shadow are covered, but Tails wants to make something, even something small, for everyone. He feels they'll need it.

He shapes some more Edgeonium and tweaks it until it has the ability to cut into Edgeonium. He shapes them into spiked gloves for Knuckles. He does some for Quake as well, pouring more energy into them - he isn't sure if Quake can use the energy but better safe than sorry.

He creates an Edgeonium head circlet for Silver and enables it to magnify his psychic abilities. He does the same for Blaze, for her fire abilities. He wants to do more for them, but cannot figure out what. He has a funny feeling the Hybrid will wake up soon and he wants to be able to help take it down.

He makes a clever type of bomb for Rouge - when thrown it explodes into instant darkness, allowing only her to see clearly. He is pleased with it, but doesn't seem as impressive as the gifts he's made for the others. He ensures every one of his friends can cut Edgeonium with a small blade with the special properties. Creating light armour of Edgeonium for his friends and he's already built a full mech suit for himself, Tails is confident he will be ready soon.

He finishes off a belt for Rouge to stash her bombs and tweaks something leaking in his mech suit when the guard comes up to him. He is in armour, and holding out a deliberately broken gun. Tails smiles at him, who winks back at Tails.

"Get it done sharpish, ya hear?" the guard grunts at Tails.

"No problem sir, I'll get to it straight away." Tails beams and retreats into his shop. He is now closed for the day. Tails finds a note in the gun. He reads -

'Meet me at the rendezvous point in twenty minutes. Make sure you're unseen. Do not leave this note lying around. Lock up.'

Tails ensures he has the Chaos Emerald, Sonic's armour and the special ring he'd created for him, and brings his rifle. He locks up shop, checking no-one can get in and he has the remote control for his mech suit if he needs it. He then takes off into the silence of the night.


	19. Chapter 19: Inside Help

Chapter Nineteen: Inside Help

"That base needs to go down." Knuckles says. They are standing in a field burned black by the comet. They're only a few miles from the base and can see it easily as it towers into the sky. They see electric fences, armed flying sentries, security cameras and guards everywhere.

"Looks like the whole out layer is made of Edgeonium!" Silver exclaims.

"How much of that stuff do they have?" Rouge enquires.

"Enough." Blaze replies, "But they didn't have the Edgeonium when the comet landed so I'm still not sure how they survived."

"They survived but they weren't completely untouched." Espio says. He points at a spot at the back corner. It is weakned and crumbling.

"Sharp eyes, ninja." Quake says, coming for a closer look, "It's weak there. We may be able to get in."

"That would mean travelling within shooting distance of the entire length of the base." Shadow says, "We'd be lucky to make it halfway across the field."

"He's right." Knuckles says, "We'll never make it across."

"Would they have detection against invisibility?" Espio asks.

"I doubt it, but I wouldn't send you in alone anyway Espio." Quake says.

"I won't be alone for long." Espio replies. He hands a device to Shadow.

"I will sneak in. I'll send an image of my surroundings to that device. Use Chaos Control to get everyone inside."

Shadow takes the device, and nods.

"Be careful." Blaze says. Espio nods and vanishes from sight.

Espio flits across the field at high speed. He cannot travel as fast as Shadow or Sonic, but he is faster than most of his friends and clears the distance quickly. He looks at the main gate. It is open, as supply vehicles are entering. Espio flits across and sticks underneath one of the vehicles as it drives in.

"He is in." Quake says. His body is glowing a faint ghostly blue.

"Good. So far so good." Knuckles says. Shadow looks at the device. It's a simple screen, little more than a large camera.

Espio feels the vehicle stop and silently twists and touches the ground. He crawls out from under the truck, still invisible. He looks around.

He is in a large, well lit warehouse with soldiers and workers organising supplies. His eyes widen as he recognises a group of soldiers nearby - the same group he'd defeated when he'd travelled with Quake. He hurries over to them. They look a lot less aggressive now, Espio thinks to himself as he draws near. Their anger is gone, replaced by a deep shame and a new sadness as they observe the working soldiers. Espio stands up, hides behind them, turns visible and taps one of the on the shoulder, pressing a finger to his lips as he does so.

Jeffrey turns around and his jaw drops at seeing Espio. He silently nudges his comrades and they all turn around and huddle in, shielding Espio from sight.

"It is good to see you." Robert says.

"Nathan told us all about what you said." Jemma says, gesturing to the only soldier Espio hadn't attacked. Espio nods.

"I need your help guys, if you dislike being loyal to G.U.N." Espio says. They nod and huddle in closer to listen.

"I have some friends of mine here and I need them out. Also, we are here to take G.U.N. down. We plan to attack from the inside. I have some friends joining me in a moment." Espio says.

"If you want to take G.U.N. out, we best head to the Armoury." Richard says, "They have a new Super Robot there and Eggman has some crazy inventions in there too. You'll need to shut them down if you want a vaguely fair fight against them."

"What Super Robot?" Espio asks.

"It's made of Edgeonium." Robert says, "And in the shape of a hedgehog."

"A hedgehog!" Espio exclaims. The soldiers nod.

"It's blinding fast." Christine adds, "Like Sonic the Hedgehog when he was still around."

"An Edgeonium Sonic robot?" Espio mutters to himself. He turns around and sends a picture of the small corner in front of him to Shadow. A quick flash of light later and they're all with him.

"Excellent plan Espio!" Quake says, then looks at the soldiers.

"It's okay." Espio says, "They are with us." Quake nods, trusting the ninja but the others hesitate. Knuckles and Shadow look particularly suspicious.

"Are you sure you can trust them, Espio?" Knuckles growls, staring fire into Robert's eyes. The older man looks back calmly, without getting angry in return.

"I believe they are changed people after their encounter with me, Knuckles." Espio replies, "They have been shown a more honourable way of life and I believe they will feel better following it."

Knuckles grunts in disbelief. Robert speaks up.

"I appreciate that you cannot trust us." he says, "We have done some bad things in our time and now that we've reflected upon them, we regret them. We've been in G.U.N. for many years so we've done some horrible things to innocent people. We would right that wrong today, by aiding in taking G.U.N. down."

"A good enough speech." Silver says, "Well, Espio trusts you, and I trust Espio. We'll see where you stand soon enough, I'm sure of it."

The others relax slightly except for Shadow, whose dark eyes narrow even further. The black hedgehog walks over to Robert and the others and stares him flat in the eye.

"If what you say is true, then you will indeed be a large help to us. Step so much as a toe out of line however, and you will be very sorry." the hedgehog says this calmly, but it is a calm so deep and meaningful that is displays how serious Shadow is. Robert can see, just by looking at Shadow that the hedgehog would make a painful end to any who go against their own beliefs.

"You will trust us in the end." Robert says with a small smile, "I am sure of it."

Shadow blinks, and nods his head, putting the matter to rest. The group return to the matter at hand.

"Sonic is here, I'm sure of it." Silver says, "Tails too."

"Anyway you can find out?" Knuckles asks.

Quake closes his eyes and glows blue again. He touches the ground with his palm and remains motionless for a moment.

"Both are downstairs." Quake says, "Sonic's in a cell and Tails is travelling with someone towards Sonic."

"How do you know?" Knuckles asks, shocked.

"I can read someone's aura. Everyone has them. It's how I could tell that Espio had made it inside the base. No-one can hide their aura, so no-one can hide from me. It takes years of meditation and study. Excellent for hunting.

"There's three High Generals way way upstairs also. I can feel their Ghost Armour. And Doctor Eggman is with them." he adds.

"Eggman is here?" Knuckles asks. Quake nods.

Marvin speaks up.

"We can take you downstairs to your friends." he says, "But there's still the Super Robot to deal with."

Espio quickly explains about the Edgeonium Sonic robot Eggman and G.U.N. have created.

"That must be what attacked me when we were fighting in the lab." Shadow realises. Something immensely fast had knocked him flying when he had been about to destroy the syringe with Sonic's blood in and then it had simple disappeared. His side still hurts where it had connected like a cannonball.

"Maybe, but it sounds as dangerous as the Hybrid in the lab you were in Shadow." Quake says.

"The Hybrid isn't awake, is it?" Robert asks fearfully.

"No. It was still asleep when he last saw it." Shadow says, "But it has the blood of myself, Sonic and our friend Tails who is very clever."

"I know Tails." Nathan says, "He has a shop downstairs. Repaired my gun once. Nice fella. Didn't know he was with you."

"If it has the blood of you and Sonic it will definitely be awake by now." Robert says, "and with the robot Sonic upstairs and the Hybrid to deal with, we're in for a very rough fight. Let's go downstairs to your friend Tails first. See if we can get Sonic out of his cell."

The group nod and follow the soldiers.


	20. Chapter 20: Go Home

A/N: This chapter is so ridiculously short so I'm sorry for that. Hope you guys have been enjoying it, the amount of views this story has had is amazing. Thank you all for taking an interest and taking the time to read it. Sorry again for the short chapter! As usual, any compliment or criticisms are welcomed so please review me and tell me what you think. :)

 **Chapter Twenty: Go Home**

Tails and the guard draw up to Sonic's cell door. The guard unlocks it and Tails goes inside. The guard locks the door behind them and stands guard, as they'd agreed. Tails has already thanked and paid him with an Edgeonium cutting blade and a custom energy gun.

Sonic's eyes widen when he sees Tails, but Tails shakes his head and put a finger to his lips when Sonic goes to speak. He gives Sonic the wrist-ring he'd made first. Sonic slips it on and it glows briefly.

"You can go even faster now, and you'll be able to tell if anyone's sneaking up on you." Tails whispers. Sonic nods in silent thanks. Tails takes out a blade and slices through his Edgeonium chains. Sonic's jaw drops open in silent shock. Tails puts a finger to Sonic's mouth and gives him the yellow Chaos Emerald.

Tails whispers in Sonic's ear.

"Go back home. Get the rest of them. We need them Sonic. Be back here as soon as you can."

Tails finishes with putting Sonic's armour on. It doesn't completely cover his body, but protects the outside of Sonic's arms and legs, and fits onto his spines on his head and back, tipping them with Edgeonium. Sonic's spin attacks can now cut through the metal.

Sonic smiles and vanishes using Chaos Control.

Tails taps on the door for the guard to let him out, but nothing happens. Frowning, Tails taps again and the door opens. he sees his guard friend restrained and the Commander pointing a gun at Tails' head.

"Where's Sonic you little sneak?" the Commander asks. Tails grits his teeth angrily.

"You'll never find out." He growls. The Commander cocks the gun.

"I'll not ask again, fox." he threatens.

Tails yells and pulls out and fires his own powerful rifle. The shot doesn't hit anyone, but distracts the Commander enough for Tails to fly out of the cell before anyone can lock it. He nudges the soldier holding his guard friend and the soldier accidentally locks the cell, shutting the Commander in. Tails knocks the soldier to the ground and grabs his guard friend, lifting him into the air.

"Thank you Tails. Was your mission a success?" the guard asks.

"Yes." Tails grins, "Sonic's getting help."


	21. Chapter 21: Running

A/N: Another small one I'm afraid and late uploading today as well as I had things to sort out. It'll get more exciting shortly I promise! Hope you're enjoying it.

 **Chapter Twenty-One: Running**

Sonic is running. As soon as he'd arrived at Tail's lab, he'd started. He has his white Chaos Emerald he used Chaos Control with - the Commander nor any of the guards had found it on him. Sonic only needs one Emerald to Chaos Control with, but he is glad Tails had given him the yellow one as well. He knows Shadow still has the green one also.

So he hurtles through the beautiful world of his timeline. He is back home. But he will go back and save them.

He thinks as he runs. With all seven Chaos Emeralds, they grant himself, Shadow, Silver and Knuckles all the ability to turn Super. But would that be enough to stop G.U.N. and Eggman? Or would they need something more?

He loves being back home. Away from that terrible future. He needs to find out how to stop that future. He refuses to live in a world like that.

He rushes to Eggman's base. He wonders if the Doctor is even in there. He'd seen Eggman in the future, but that could be the Eggman from that timeline, not this one.

Sonic doesn't care. He blasts through the base, half destroying it, and grabs two of the Chaos Emeralds. He doesn't see the Doctor at all.

He gathers the rest of them in no time, going at incredible speed thanks to Tail's wrist-ring. The little guy had surprised him again with the ring and armour. He vows to smash as much Edgeonium as he could when he returns to the future.

He has six of the seven, knowing Shadow has the last. He hurtles back to Tails' lab and looks for anything his friend might need. Taking some of Tails's special tools, he uses Chaos Control and vanishes.


	22. Chapter 22: Reunion

Activity seems to have died a bit on this story. Please let me know if I've done something you don't like guys. Enjoy :)

 **Chapter Twenty-Two: Reunion**

Tails and the guard round the corner and head back to his workshop. He pulls people with him along the way. Once at his shop, he starts handing out Edgeonium blades, guns and armour to everyone he could, with the guard helping. Soon the whole floor is armed and Tails thanks everyone for pitching in.

The soldiers lead Espio down the stairs and into the lift. They only just fit, but everyone squeezes in and they go down towards Tails. Quake checks on them.

"Sonic's gone." he says, startling everyone.

"Gone?" Knuckles asks. Shadow narrows his eyes.

"Chaos Control." he says, "He's gone back to get the others."

Everyone knows why he avoids mentioning the Chaos Emeralds - they only partially trust the soldiers Espio is with and they didn't want the Chaos Emeralds becoming common knowledge when everyone in this timeline thinks they're destroyed.

"Gone to get more help?" Marvin asks. Shadow looks at him,then nods.

"Where's Tails?" Knuckles asks.

"With a guard in a corner of the lab." Quake replies.

"That'll be his workshop." Richard says, "He can do crazy stuff with technology."

"A pity we couldn't bring Omega with us." Rouge says sadly, "Tails could fix him up again."

"I'll bring him here if I get the chance to." Shadow says.

They head down more stairs with the soldiers. They see the slave floor where Tails works. It looks nice and clean enough, but they see the state of the people down there and know they're the slaves.

"Hey, half those slaves have guns!" a soldier says. They look closer and see most of the slaves are in some form of armour and carrying a sword or a gun.

"Why are they armed?" Robert wonders.

"Maybe they're joining the fight against G.U.N." Knuckles says.

They enter the floor.

"Tails' shop is over here." Jeffrey says, pointing. Knuckles chuckles.

"Sure looks like something Tails would throw together." he says, "It's nice to see something similar to home in this place."

They get to the workshop, and find it empty. Quake checks on Tails.

"He's coming back." he says, "But we have company."

They turn around and see soldiers piling into the room. They arm themselves and aim at the group. The slaves react immediately, relishing the chance to stand up against their tormentors. Rob, Jim and the other soldiers join the fray.

"Get what you need and wait for Tails!" Robert shouts over his shoulder, "We'll hold them off as long as possible!"

"I will not stand by and let them perish." Shadow says, "Wait for Tails. Call me when he's here."

He joins the brawl, tripping soldiers over, and sending Chaos Spears everywhere. Silver sees Tails flying into the room carrying a guard. He flies over to help, deflecting attacks aimed at him with his telekinesis.

"Tails!"

"Silver! Sure is nice to see you." Tails says. He puts the guard down.

"Thank you Tails." the guard says, "I'll help against G.U.N. now." he joins the fight also.

"I have some good news!" Tails says, "I can cut through Edgeonium!"

"That's brilliant! Show us what you've got Tails. Knuckles has high expectations of you." Silver says.

"Right this way!" Tails heads to his workshop and sees the others.

"Hi guys!" he waves. They all say hi back.

"Tails can cut Edgeonium!" Silver says to his friends.

"I knew you could do it Tails!" Knuckles cheers. Tails starts by handing everyone a blade that can cut Edgeonium. Shadow takes his and looks at it.

"I'll be back." he says, and vanishes using Chaos Control. Rouge smiles.

"I know where he's gone." she says.

Tails hands out the armour pieces he's made for everyone, then starts on the special gifts. Starting with Espio's blade and Rouge's darkness bombs.

"It's not much, but I wanted to give everyone an edge since we'll be fighting G.U.N. full force." Tails says.

He gives Knuckles and Quake their gauntlets, and they nod, looking very impressed. Silver and Blaze get their circlets.

"I feel incredible!" Silver cries, "How have you done this?" he asks Tails.

"G.U.N.'s technology is incredible." Tails explains, "I could work wonders with it if I had time. All these guns and armour were made by me." he gestures to the armed slaves.

"You made all those?" Silver asks. Tails nods.

Quake steps towards the fighting, and slams his fist into the ground. He channels the energy stored in the gauntlet and the impact sends a massive shock wave into the ground, knocking everyone over.

"Yes, I think these will do just nicely." Quake is pleased, "If you don't mind, I'll go have some fun with these." he joins the battle against the G.U.N. soldiers, knocking them left and right with ease. Knuckles joins him.

Shadow appears in the lab. He goes to the cell first. He sees his own dead body, and finally cuts it down.

"I'll bury you when I have time." Shadow promises, then leaves the cell.

He goes to the lab next to check on the Hybrid and Maria. His jaw drops.

The Hybrid's tank is empty. Maria is still safe in her tank though. Shadow growls and collects Omega's remains.

"He's awake." Shadow realises in horror and Chaos Controls back. In the half second before his vanishes, he sees a monstrous face jump out at him from nowhere - the Hybrid had been about to catch him, but Chaos Control allows Shadow to escape. The experience unnerves Shadow - the Hybrid had moved so fast he couldn't even be seen. He hears the Hybrid's cry of frustration as Shadow disappears.

Shadow reappears in front of the group. He looks at Rouge, and nods, before laying down Omega's remains.

"What happened to him?" Silver asks.

"The High General." Shadow replies, "He stuck something in Omega that shut him down. I'm hoping Tails can repair him."

"Shadow!" Tails calls. He runs out holding four glowing golden rings.

"I made these in place of you inhibitor rings. They'll keep you alive and you won't need to remove them to unleash all your energy!"

Shadow takes them, and replaces his rings with the new ones. A surge of energy visibly travels through Shadow's body. The black hedgehog smiles.

"Let's see that High General resist my attacks this time. Thank you Tails."

G.U.N. and the rebel slaves are still fighting, with Quake and Knuckles still taking part. The slaves are winning heavily now, but more reinforcements keep pouring in.

A blue wind whips up around the battle, and everyone is swept off their feet. Knuckles is the first up, smiling at the familiarity of it.

Sonic appears in front of the group. An alarm is heard, with someone shouting that Sonic is out.

"The Chaos Emerald, Shadow." the blue hedgehog says. Shadow gives him the green Emerald.

"Let's get this party started!" Sonic grins.


	23. Chapter 23: The Battle Begins

A/N: Some action for you readers at last! This chapter is a decent size I hope so I hope you enjoy. As usual, drop a review telling me what you like or what you don't like. Thanks guys.

 **Chapter Twenty-Three: The Battle Begins**

"Well then, time to try out these new toys." Rouge says. She hurls a Darkness Bomb into the midst of the fighting. The room disappears and becomes pitch black, rendering absolutely everyone temporarily blind. Except Rouge. Rouge sees all, and swipes from above, taking out many enemies.

She sees Quake still fighting like nothing has happened as knows he is using his aura ability to detect where his enemies are. He is powerful in the extreme, a force to be reckoned with.

After a minute, the effect wears off and light returns to the room. Many of the slaves have forced their way further through the base, pushing to gather as much ground as possible while their assault is still somewhat of a surprise.

The slave working area is littered with bodies. More slaves had fallen than soldiers, as their gear is still inferior to the soldiers. But the slaves fight with a desperate edge that has allowed them to take out many more than they would usually be capable of.

"Guys, we have a problem." Knuckles says, drawing their attention. They look up to the roof where Knuckles is looking and see a metallic blue robot hedgehog looking at them. It sees that it has been spotted and laughs mechanically. It's voice is magnified so all in the room hear it. The soldiers laugh with the robot - it's a Super Weapon, and extremely hard to destroy.

The robotic Sonic - the blue indicates he is the only hedgehog the robot could represent - drops from the ceiling and lands in front of the group. It's eyes are the same wide circular shape as Sonic's, but the top edges are sharper, like Shadow's.

Where the white of the eyeball is supposed to be is replaced by a pure black. The robot's pupils burn a bloody red and move like reticles in a camera, widening and focusing as it's vision changes perception.

It's body is the sleek texture of polished metal, painted with blue a shade darker than Sonic's fur, and with a white 'V' painted down from either shoulder and meeting at the bottom of the torso. Black pain replaces the blue in the gap the 'V' leaves. The spines on the back of the robots' head are serrated at the tip and point straight backward.

The legs are in two segments, effectively having a knee joint like ordinary animals. The feet are shaped into metal shoes looking exactly like Sonic's. The arms and legs are as blue as the spines and the arms end in silver, slender, clawed hands. The patch under his eyes where his mouth and nose should be is polished silver, like the hands, and a small black nugget of metal stands as the robot's nose.

"I am Chrome Sonic." the robot greets the group, "I was created by Doctor Eggman to be among G.U.N.'s final defences. You will all die."

"Final defences?" Sonic laughs, "You mean G.U.N. have given up already? I expected more of a fight!"

"Foolish hedgehog." Chrome Sonic says, "Your fight ends here."

Chrome Sonic spreads his arms out wide and releases hundreds of tiny robots into the air. They travel like a co-ordinated swarm, and rush at the group. Blaze sends a wave of fire at them and they temporarily go down. They quickly recover however, and resume their charge on the group.

"This is where your future collapses, Sonic." the robot hedgehog says, "You will never return to your timeline, and you will cease to exist. The same with the rest of you. Silver. Blaze. Quake. Your existence will finally be erased."

The robot swarm charges again. Sonic jumps and aims an attack at them, but they part around him like water and dodge the attack. Blaze tries a hotter wave of fire and Silver holds them in place. There are too many for him to hold at once though, and he soon relinquishes his psychic hold.

Chrome Sonic fires a missile at Tails, which Shadow quickly kicks back at the robot hedgehog. It explodes with deafening force and a blinding light, causing the group to cover their ears and shut their eyes tightly a moment.

Chrome Sonic isn't affected at all by his own missile, and charges directly at Shadow. He is too fast for the Ultimate Life Form, and knocks him flying backward. Shadow flips in mid air to attack back but Chrome Sonic is too fast and slams into him again. The robot is caught by Silver and flung backward at the G.U.N. soldiers watching.

They yell in panic and scramble to avoid Chrome Sonic, but the robot hedgehog catches itself in mid-air and hurtles back like a jet at Silver. Blaze destroys the swarm of small robots and hurls fire at Chrome Sonic, but it passes over it without any damage. As Chrome Sonic reaches Silver, Quake steps forward and uppercuts the robot flying into the air. His gloves enable Quake to damage Chrome Sonic's armour.

Quake had hit the robot so hard it had flown through the roof of the building seven storeys in the air. The robot comes down a moment later and lands with a crash that makes a small crater in the floor. Rouge looks up and sees two High Generals and Doctor Eggman heading down to the fight scene.

Chrome Sonic's chassis is heavily damaged, but it melts together and becomes good as new within a second of it landing. The robot laughs again and floats to its feet. It uses rocket pulses to travel so quickly. Quake grins and charges at Chrome Sonic, but the robot zips to the side as Quake gets close and rams into the echidna from the side. Knuckles cries out and charges at the robot. Chrome Sonic zips out the way again, but Knuckles, having experience fighting creatures faster than he is from battling Sonic from time to time, changes direction as suddenly as Chrome Sonic had and lands a fist into the robot's armour.

Chrome Sonic is again flung flying, sideways this time instead of up. Knuckles, knowing the robot's armour would repair any second, charges in the direction Chrome Sonic flew in in the hopes of pounding it to pieces before it can regenerate.

As Knuckles reaches where Chrome Sonic had fallen, an explosion knocks him backwards. He collapses and rolls across the ground, sliding to a halt at Sonic's feet, where he lays motionless.

"Knuckles?!" Sonic cries to his friend. the echidna remains still.

"I think he's just knocked out Sonic." Tails says, checking Knuckles quickly.

"Good." Sonic says, and looks up to see where Chrome Sonic has gone.

Blaze surrounds the group in a protective dome of fire, making use of the circlet Tails has made her. It makes her feel very powerful, and relishes the feeling her new strength has given her.

Chrome Sonic reappears apparently out of nowhere in front of the group, but Sonic knows it wasn't a teleport - Chrome Sonic is somehow far faster than any other Sonic robot Eggman has made in the past and therefore, Doctor Eggman has finally made something faster than Sonic. Sonic realises that the doctor must have made immense use of G.U.N.'s new technology even as Tails had.

Sonic sees Eggman rushing into the room with two High Generals. Shadow grits his teeth, memories of his last battle with a High General fresh in his mind. He recognises one of the two High Generals as the one he had fought. He isn't surprised to see the High General's almost transparent armour completely repaired from the minor damage Shadow had dealt it in their last meeting.

"Sonic!" Shadow yells and points to the High General he'd fought, "He's MINE!"

Sonic doesn't argue, but Quake runs up to Shadow.

"I won't let you take them on alone, they're too powerful." he says. To everyone's surprise, the black hedgehog nods.

"Try to keep up." Shadow says and hurtles at the High Generals.

The High General Shadow had fought snarls. Quake notices one of the High General's eyes is plain white, with scar tissue on the skin around the eye. The High General is very plump, and wearing a smart suit. Quake notices the almost unseen barrier around the High General's entire body that serves as his armour - after all the years of looking into it, he, Silver and Blaze still don't know what it's made from. Quake recalls his name as High General Nohvelon.

The other High General is thickly built and muscular under his suit, his face is strong jawed with small eyes. He is gritting his teeth as he bounds towards them with an energy rifle in his hands. Quake doesn't know his name. He raises and fires a shot, which Shadow deflects with his bare hands. Quake blinks - Shadow may be even more powerful than he originally thought. Even Silver couldn't bat away an energy shot with only his hands.

Quake's fists glow yellow and he fires a circular blast when he thrusts his arm towards the muscular High General. He would help Shadow, but the fierceness of the hedgehog's voice when he said to Sonic that he would deal with Nohvelon was enough for even Quake to not get in his way.

The blast from Quake knocks the two High Generals backwards but doesn't seem to damage their armour. Doctor Eggman snarls and gets into his flying pod.

"Sonic!" Shadow yells, "Get Eggman!"

"You got it Shadow!" Sonic calls back.

"Not so fast, hedgehog." Eggman growls. He flies over to Chrome Sonic.

"What do you think of my latest invention, Sonic?" Eggman asks with glee, "He's a fine specimen, don't you think? He'll be more than a match for you and all your little friends!"

"And you'll have no chance when the Hybrid shows up!" the muscular High General snarls.

"You think we'd ever let that thing out of it's cage?!" Rouge cries.

"It's already out!" Shadow replies, "It's tank was empty when I went to fetch Omega and free myself. It's presumably looking for Blaze and Silver somewhere."

"The Hybrid is on it's way here!" the High General yells, "And it will gain all of your powers and be unstoppable! Let's see you win this war now, Silver!"

"We're not finished yet." Quake growls.

"We're just getting started." Shadow says. He throws Chaos Spears at the High General and Eggman, knocking them backwards. Sonic rushes for Eggman but Chrome Sonic intercepts him and smashes him to the side. More Chaos Spears hit Chrome Sonic and the explosion disorientates the robot temporarily.

Nohvelon charges at Shadow, who growls and vanishes. He reappears behind Nohvelon and kicks him in the back. He stumbles forwards but otherwise is fine.

The other High General charges for Quake, who crouches and uppercuts the armour. It cracks and sizzles as Quake's strength damages it, but like Chrome Sonic, it repairs itself almost instantly.

An explosion ripples through the air as Shadow uses Chaos Energy to fend of an attack by Chrome Sonic and Nohvelon at the same time. Rouge and Espio join Quake, Rouge taking to the air and Espio disappearing. The High Generals' eyes widen at Espio's ability, but Chrome Sonic looks directly at him, eyes lighting up orange. The robot hurtles at Espio who avoids it in mid-air. Quake would comment on the battle for the sake of everyone else, but he and Rouge are busy with the muscular High General. Rouge trips him over so he lands on his side and Quake sends a powerful punch crashing down on top of him. The armour almost shatters from the blow, demonstrating Quake's immense strength.

Chrome Sonic is apparently attacking the group at random, although he is still in combat with Espio currently. Tails is nowhere to be seen and Blaze is trying to revive Knuckles. Sonic is battling Eggman. Quake and Rouge are fighting the muscular High General, Shadow in combat with the other.

Nohvelon and Shadow start fighting hand to hand. Jabs, punches, kicks and swipes are dealt both ways. Due to Nohvelon's armour, Shadow isn't doing much damage. But Nohvelon isn't dealing much back either as Shadow avoids most of the attacks aimed at him.

Shadow punches Nohvelon and his energy sends the High General away.

Quake smashes the muscular High General in the same direction as Nohvelon and they crash in a heap. Chrome Sonic zips up to Quake and kicks him flying and fires a bolt of energy at Rouge. Rouge cries out in pain and collapses, unconscious. Her stomach smokes lightly where the energy bolt had hit her.

"ROUGE!" Shadow bellows and he glows red.

"Shadow, no!" Sonic yells, "If you unleash an attack like that in here the whole roof will come down!"

"Both of my friends have been defeated by these STUPID humans, hedgehog." Shadow snaps dangerously, "Do not get in my way."

Nohvelon charges at Shadow, who darts forward and emits a small but powerful pulse to stumble Nohvelon. Shadow then swings his body upwards and kicks Nohvelon upwards. The force is such that, were it not for his armour, Nohvelon's head would have just flown off his body. As such, his entire body soars upwards like he'd been fired from a gun and he crashes into the beams supporting the ceiling. He is wedged between them painfully and his armour starts flickering.

Shadow hurls three searing Chaos Spears up to Nohvelon. The explosion tears the roof open and sends Nohvelon toward the floor. Shadow jumps and teleports up to Nohvelon and kicks him harder to the ground. The High General lands with a crash that dents the floor and stumbles anyone near him.

Meanwhile, Quake gets up from being struck by Chrome Sonic, who rushes over to meet Quake in battle. Quake blocks the robot's melee attack by raising his huge fist, then strikes Chrome Sonic with his free left hand. The robot flies backward, but stops itself in mid air. Quake is already running after the robot though and, expecting him to recover, smashes it downward into the ground. He starts pummelling it, landing blow after blow onto the robot's body, hoping to damage it seriously enough to stop it regenerating.

The muscular High General knocks Quake aside though, and the robot swiftly recovers from the extensive damage Quake did to it. Quake snarls and punches the High General off of him. His fists glow and he closes his eyes. His body flashes white and he launches a powerful ball of fire at the High General. The High General roars and is engulfed in flames. He roars as he tries to slap out the flames. Quake is confused why - nothing as simple as flames could get through that armour.

"Guys!" Tails cries. They turn to see him in a battle mech and a fully repaired and upgraded Omega next to him.

"The armour's made of energy! If you wear it down enough, it'll break. That's why he's trying to put out the flames - it's slowly draining the energy the armour needs to stay active."

Quake laughs with relish.

"Oh I like you Tails." he says and runs to the muscular High General. The human snarls and fires energy shots at Quake. Shadow darts in front of the echidna and reflects the shots back at the High General. Quake carries on with a brief nod of thanks to Shadow.

Nohvelon gets up, face snarling. Eggman swipes Sonic to the side. Tails jumps in to battle Eggman. With their superior mechs, their fight is much more intense than usual.

Sonic gets up to join Tails' battle against the doctor, but Chrome Sonic appears in front of him.

"This has tallied long enough." the robot says, "My mission is to destroy Sonic the Hedgehog, and now it will be completed."


	24. Chapter 24: Out of Pan, Into Fire

**Chapter Twenty-Four: Out of the Frying Pan, Into the Fire**

The rebel slaves suddenly start streaming into the room, screaming in fear. One of them was heard shouting, "They're too strong! They have robotic limbs! Too strong!"

Most of them were injured, burned and/or bloody in one way or another. Their battle spirit appeared to have been crushed out of them - even their armour is in tattered ruins.

Tails manages to get a brief look at the slaves and his heart sinks. He knows they hadn't really fought for anything before, not as a group like this, but he had hoped their desperation would give them an edge that would allow them to push through the defences of G.U.N.

Tails resumes his battle with Doctor Eggman. Tails' mech suit is a large machine, humanoid in shape, with thick arms and legs. He'd built a lot of it out of Edgeonium, using the last of what he had, but many parts were built from other materials as well. Eggman's machine, on the other hand, appeared to be nothing but Edgeonium, giving him a resistant edge against Tails. Eggman has also had longer to work G.U.N.'s fine technology than Tails and has managed to create weapons beyond anything he's had before. Still, Tails has tussled with Eggman before and so knows his opponent's battle style.

Sonic and Chrome Sonic start battling. Chrome Sonic had been designed to be much faster than Sonic. However, thanks to the ring Tails made for him that increases his speed, Sonic is able to evenly match the robot. Sonic knows also that he has all seven Chaos Emeralds, something Eggman and G.U.N. don't know of yet. He could transform into Super Sonic if he needed an edge against the robot. But not yet. Sonic is saving his trump card for when he really needs it.

Quake and Shadow resume their battles against the two High Generals. With Shadow's new rings and Quake's gloves imbued with an immense amount of energy, they are able to deal out far more damage than usual, causing the High Generals to be wary of them. The two black creatures are a devastating combination, with Shadow and his Chaos abilities combined with Quake's aura powers.

Rouge and Knuckles are both back on their feet thanks to Blaze, who'd revived them whilst Silver had protected her. And Tails has repaired Omega and upgraded him with some high-tech weaponry, making him a formidable foe once again. The team seem to be intact once again.

Omega sees Nohvelon, the High General who'd shut him down in the first place. The robot raises its arm and fires a tremendous concussive blast. It is so powerful that it vibrates the air as it passes, sending shivers up people's spines. It collides with Nohvelon with a crashing sound, only just missing Shadow, and the High General is knocked away.

The muscular High General shouts something into a radio then has to protect himself as Quake renews his attack. The Echidna is far stronger than when the High General had last clashed with him, years before Sonic had arrived to help, and so he now treats Quake with wary respect. Quake on the other hand, seems to have had enough and starts dishing damage out at full power. The High General's armour continues to fade as Quake wears it down with powerful punches. The High General snarls and draws a blade of neon blue energy. Quake grits his teeth and leaps backwards from an attack. He isn't much of a blade user - Espio seems to be the one who could deal with this. But Espio isn't strong enough to tackle the High General alone - even without his armour, he is a dangerously strong man.

Rouge throws another darkness bomb. The room fills with black smoke, tumbling everything into pitch darkness. Quake carries on hammering away at the muscular High General's armour like nothing has happened and Rouge makes an attack through the oncoming G.U.N. soldiers that are streaming into the room intending to cut down the rebel slaves. She barrels through a large group of them, and then gets into the thick of it, tripping soldiers over, kicking them and biting them and setting off grenades in their pockets, while the soldiers hurry to turn on flash lights and assemble some form of order in the darkness.

The torches have no effect whatsoever on the darkness, something that immensely pleases Rouge as she dives in for a quick darting attack. She knocks a soldier over with a kick to his head, then darts back up, leaving the soldiers worrying and fearing where the attack might have come from.

Knuckles shakes himself, angry at being taken out of the fight, and looks around. But he is affected by Rouge's darkness bombs like everyone else, so he is blind to his surroundings. He runs aimlessly, bumping into people, and punching out randomly.

The bomb wears off and Knuckles finds he's punched through an army mixed of slaves and soldiers. He also sees he'd knocked Silver down, and hurries over to apologise.

"Hey, blame Tails." Silver laughs as Knuckles floods him with apologies, "He's the one who made those bombs for Rouge." Knuckles grins and helps him up, and then the two stand back to back to deal with oncoming soldiers. the slaves have backed off into a corner, frightened for their lives and regretting ever rebelling against G.U.N.

Sonic and Chrome Sonic are still battling, darting at each other in an attempt to cause damage. Chrome Sonic has an extreme advantage - Sonic's gear that Tails had made him didn't allow him to effectively fight against Edgeonium and what little damage he does to the robot is quickly, almost instantly, repaired by Chrome Sonic's technology. Unlike Chrome Sonic, the blue hedgehog is having to be careful about his attacks - he doesn't have the endurance to resist many attacks from Chrome Sonic.

Tails and Eggman are tussling with their mechs, and with Shadow and Quake on the High Generals it leaves Omega, Espio, Rouge, Silver and Blaze to deal with the rest of G.U.N.'s army.

"Omega!" Silver shouts, "Help Sonic and Tails if you can! Take that robot down!"

"Affirmative." the robot replies. He rotates and fires another two tremendous concussive blasts at Eggman and Chrome Sonic. The latter zips to the side, avoiding it but Eggman is caught full force by it and flies to the side, crashing into the wall. His mech being made of Edgeonium though, Eggman takes little damage.

Omega focuses on helping Sonic, who is in the greater danger of the two friends. He flies over and locks onto Chrome Sonic, releasing energy bolts. Chrome Sonic takes the attack, thinking it won't harm it, but the bolts soon start melting into the robot's chassis, destroying his inner workings.

"Chrome Sonic!" Eggman shouts in despair. The robot pauses, then raises an arm and, without looking at Omega, fires a rocket. It travels too fast for anyone to see and crashes into Omega. It then explodes, sending the robot to pieces.

"OMEGA!" Shadow and Rouge cry at the same time. Rouge growls and throws another darkness bomb. She then draws her Edgeonium dagger and flies at Chrome Sonic.

The robot's eyes narrow and glow brighter as they focus and adjust to the lack of light in the room. It sees Rouge coming and avoids her first attack easily. Sonic then crashes into Chrome Sonic's back, knocking it over. Rouge slams her dagger into Chrome Sonic's head, and she repeatedly stabs the robot with a rare fury.

Eggman takes advantage of Tails watching Omega's demise by shooting a strange blue orb at his mech. Tails screams and goes crashing down, his mech destroyed. He flies out of the mech and draws a piston gun. He fires it and it hammers the whole mech at Eggman. It explodes onto Eggman's mech, causing him to cry out. The mech disappears in a ball of fire, but Tails knows Eggman will have survived.

With Omega and Tails out of the battle, Silver turns and takes Tails' place against Eggman. Eggman leaps out of the smoke in his mech.

"Clever move Tails, but that's not going to take me out!" the doctor yells. Silver lifts Eggman's mech into the air and repeatedly slams it into the ground. Eggman grunts in frustration at not being able to do anything as Silver pounds the mech. Tails gets his powerful rifle and fires a shot at Eggman every time the mech hit the ground. With the two attacking together, Eggman's mech is soon a melting pile of mess that Eggman is frantically trying to get out of.

Silver shoots Eggman out of the mech and against the wall, where he cries in pain and collapses to the floor.

Chrome Sonic explodes, blowing Rouge and Sonic backwards. Sonic and Rouge smile at each other, thinking him defeated, but the robot reassembles itself an instant later, as good as new. Sonic grits his teeth and charges. The robot avoids the attack, but Sonic swings a kick to the side, connecting with the robot.

It does no visible damage, and Chrome Sonic retaliates with a punch that sends Sonic flying helplessly backwards. He crashes into the wall. He goes to get up but Chrome Sonic is there in an instant and slams Sonic up against the wall, holding the hedgehog up by his neck. Sonic struggles and kicks against the robot but it's too strong, too durable. He struggles to breathe as Chrome Sonic holds him there, motionless.

Rouge charges at the robot from behind, but the robot kicks out backwards when the time is right and Rouge is sent sprawling across the ground. Blaze joins the fight against the robot, putting as much heat onto Chrome Sonic as she can. The robot ignores her - it's armour can withstand a lot of heat.

It's only when Knuckles joins the fight, when Sonic's face is turning purple from lack of air, is the battle turned. Knuckles runs up and slams a huge fist into the robot's side. Knuckles' strength is enough to launch the robot to the side, freeing Sonic. Knuckles grabs hold of one of Chrome Sonic's arms and heaves with all his might. To Eggman's and the High General's shock, Knuckles rips the arm clean off. He forms a sort of spear using the arm and rearranging the fingers so they all point forward, and rams it through the robot's body. He then crumples the robot's head, crushing it.

Nohvelon and Shadow are still battling. Shadow is too fast for Nohvelon to hit but the High General is extremely durable. Shadow yells out, enraged at Omega's demise and Rouge's defeat and fires a volley of blue Chaos energy bolts at Nohvelon. He calls the attack Chaos Arrow, and fires hundreds of them against the High General's armour.

A large cracking sound is heard and a bright light fills the room, along with Nohvelon shouting, "NOO!". The light clears and the armour is destroyed. Shadow grits his teeth and charges a Chaos Spear until it glows fiery orange instead of it's usual yellow. He looks at Nohvelon's face. The High General cowers, sensing his demise and being powerless to stop the hedgehog.

"Stop."

The voice is barely more than a whisper, but the entire room hears it. Shadow stops. He knows that voice. Dread fills him as he slowly turns in the direction of the voice. All battle ceases.

Sonic and his friends all look up to the owner of the voice. A perfect copy of Shadow stands on a beam high up near the ceiling. The hedgehog is holding a blade across someone's throat.

"Cease your attack or she dies." the hedgehog whispers. Shadow's eyes widen.

The Hybrid's blade is across Maria's throat.


	25. Chapter 25: GUNS Ultimate Weapon

**Chapter Twenty-Five: G.U.N.'s Ultimate Weapon**

Nohvelon gets up and calls to the muscular High General.

"Brolaine! Let's go!" Nohvelon shouts. The muscular High General, Brolaine, nods and follows Nohvelon.

As the two flee the fight scene, the Hybrid grabs Maria and jumps. The drop thirty storeys to the ground, but the Hybrid slows their descent as they near the floor and touch down light as a cat. He is still holding the blade to Maria's throat. The girl looks extremely frightened.

"Hey now!" Eggman calls, still slumped in the corner, "Don't you harm her!" The Hybrid narrows his eyes and let's go of Maria.

It happens faster than anyone can follow. As soon as he releases Maria, the Hybrid disappears and the whole group feel a small, sharp stab in their arm. The cuts draw blood and before Maria is even halfway to the ground, the Hybrid is back, holding Maria up in one hand, a vial filled with blood in the other. An evil grin crosses the hedgehog's face as he shakes the vial. The entire thing had happened in less than two seconds.

Shadow's eyes will with dread. The Hybrid's speed is beyond unreal. Faster than Sonic and Shadow combined. Shadow can't imagine anything being that fast.

We have to fight THAT?! Shadow thinks hopelessly to himself. Omega is destroyed. Rouge is unconscious. Sonic is barely able to fight, still recovering from when Chrome Sonic almost strangled him to death. Knuckles knows how to handles opponents faster than he is, but not on this kind of level. The Hybrid's speed had been such that it is almost instant. And now he has a vial filled with a mixture of everyone's blood, he would absorb it and become practically unstoppable.

The Hybrid laughs and tosses the vial into the air. He allows the glass to break over his head. The blood is absorbed by his skin instantly. The effect is immediate. Dropping Maria to the floor, the Hybrid bulges outward a moment while letting out a monstrous roar loud enough for the entire base to hear. The Hybrid returns to normal size after a moment but then charges occur to his body.

The colour of Shadow's fur fades on the Hybrid as it turns to a midnight blue. The eyes turn pure black, and the iris turns blood red. The red corners in Shadow's eyes turn white on the Hybrid. Two white lines appear down the Hybrid's head, ending in arrowhead shaped points on the Hybrid's brow between his eyes.

The Hybrid's hands swell out to form hands like Knuckles'. The groups' eyes widen as they witness the transformation. White glowing lines appear n the Hybrids' arms and legs, ending in white circles on his palms similar to Silvers'. White tips appear on the top of each of the Hybrid's spines, similar to Shadow's red. His spines point downward like Sonic's.

The Hybrid lets out another loud roar of triumph and laughs.

"You'll lose this battle before it's even begun." the Hybrid jeers at Shadow. The black hedgehog grits his teeth. He takes a step towards Maria but is swept flying off his feet by the Hybrid, almost invisible from his speed. Shadow crashes to the ground and the Hybrid reappears behind the fallen Maria.

"Another step to the girl and she dies, Shadow the Hedgehog." the Hybrid snarls. His voice seems to have an echo, as if more than one voice is speaking at once. His gloves and socks are orange and his shoes are plain except a stripe on the top from toe to the top of the foot and three spikes on the toes in a row travelling up the stripe.

Shadow hates the power in the Hybrid's voice. It brings a sense of hopelessness to anyone who hears him speak.

"We need to get everyone up." Shadow says to the group through gritted teeth. Sonic is struggling to get to his feet. Rouge remains motionless and all that's left of Omega is a mess of scrap metal and a single arm. Tails rushes to help Sonic up, but the Hybrid strikes him with his speed and sends Tails flying away. Knuckles helps Sonic to his feet whilst Tails had distracted the Hybrid however and Sonic manages to stay on his feet. Knuckles goes to Rouge but again, the Hybrid attacks. Knuckles tries swinging a punch at the Hybrid the moment he sees him disappear but it doesn't work - the Hybrid is too fast.

The Hybrid knocks Shadow down again.

"Fighting is useless." he says, "You will not win. Not now, not ever. Drop this fight and surrender before I get serious."

Knuckles's eyes almost pop out of their sockets. The Hybrid is playing with them. That's how hopelessly outmatched they are.

"Now then, let's start playing with my new toys." the Hybrid chuckles and lifts a hand. Silver yells in pain as he's elevated into the air by the Hybrids telekinesis, which he'd gained from Silver's blood.

"Not so fun when you're on the receiving end, eh hedgehog?" the Hybrid laughs. Quake goes to attack the Hybrid, but a lightning fast flick of his wrist and the Hybrid knocks Quake flying. He'd amassed not only the speed of Sonic and Shadow, but also the strength of Knuckles and Quake.

"You fail to realise what I can do." the Hybrid says, looking over slowly at the incapacitated Quake, "I have your strength. I have Knuckles's strength. I have Sonic's and Shadow's speed combined with my own. I can see in the dark thanks to Rouge. I can twist anything in this room with my mind thanks to Silver. I CAN BURN EVERYONE IN MY PATH WITH BLAZE'S POWER! I HAVE THE GENIUS MINDS OF YOU AND TAILS! AND YOU THINK YOU CAN STOP ME?!"

As the Hybrid yells at Quake, Silver struggles in his telekinetic bonds. He uses his own powers to try and break free. It succeeds somewhat, but the Hybrid's powerful mind quickly cages Silver again. Silver uses his circlet Tails has made him but to no avail - the Hybrid, with the minds of Silver himself, a technological genius like Tails and Quake, who has the clever mind of his ancestors thanks to his links with the Nocturnas Clan, the Hybrid is unstoppable.

The Hybrid walks over to Quake and lifts him off the ground physically with one hand. Quake throws a punch but the Hybrid catches it with his mind. Quake fights against the psychic powers with his strength. He emits energy from his body and gloves and detonates it in the Hybrid's face. The room fills with light and smoke. Silver is released from his psychic bonds, so he flies back to the rest of the group. Quake runs out of the smoke a moment later, joining the group.

The smoke clears and the Hybrid is perfectly fine. Not so much as a scratch is visible on his body. It seems he'd released Silver and Quake on purpose.

"It was a clever trick Quake, but I'm afraid it won't work on me." the Hybrid says, "Nothing you have will work." he zips over to the group. In quick succession, he kicks Knuckles and Quake skywards using both feet, punches Blaze and Tails across the room with his echidna fists and fires a psychic blast at the rest of them sending them flying in various directions.

The Hybrid zips between them in mid-air, kicking or punching them to the ground or into the wall. He finishes by grabbing Shadow around the neck and grabbing Maria by the back of hers.

"You two know each other, don't you?" the Hybrid grins evilly as he forces Shadow and Maria to look at each other.

"Ma...Mariaa...aaaa" Shadow moans.

"Sh-Shadow" Maria cries, tears in her eyes.

"Ah, forgotten love." the Hybrid jeers, "Such an emotional reunion." he throws Shadow into the floor, his strength being such that Shadow makes a small crater in the floor the size of his body as he connects with it. The Hybrid stands on Shadow's chest, stamping down on him. Shadow cries in pain and Maria cries out for the Hybrid not to harm Shadow.

"Such a sweet little thing, that she cares for you Shadow." the Hybrid taunts, "You've neglected her all these many years."

Shadow grits his teeth and forces himself against the Hybrid in a bid to free himself.

"We have to get Maria away from the Hybrid." Silver whispers to the others.

"How exactly to we do that?" Sonic asks. Knuckles and Quake return to the ground after being kicked upwards by the Hybrid. They both crash to the ground and take a moment to get back up. Tails and Blaze rejoin the group as well.

"Sonic, you have the Chaos Emeralds." Silver mutters under his breath. Sonic nods.

"I still don't think it's time to use them yet." Sonic whispers back.

"Chaos Emeralds?" the Hybrid laughs, causing them to gasp, "You have them? That's excellent news, Sonic."

In response to their stunned faces, the Hybrid taps his ears.

"You know, bats have a remarkably acute sense of hearing. Once again, I have you to thank, Rouge." The bat growls.

The Hybrid laughs. He drops Maria and zips over to Sonic, punching him, hard, in the stomach. Sonic cries out and kneels over in pain. He is unable to breathe as the Hybrid knocked the wind out of him.

"Now why don't you hand those Chaos Emeralds over?" the Hybrid asks. Sonic grits his teeth and shakes his head in a no. The Hybrid kicks him upward and he soars through the roof high above. The Hybrid vanishes and reappears above Sonic, slamming him back down to the ground. He vanishes again, reappearing next to Knuckles, where Sonic is going to fall. He punches Knuckles flying out of the way, then jumps and swings a kick into Sonic as the blue hedgehog reaches him, sending him flying into the wall.

"I'll have those Emeralds sooner or later, hedgehog." the Hybrid says in a dark tone. He turns his attention to the rest of the group, who'd surrounded him looking furious. The Hybrid laughs.

"You want to play? Fine." he says. He darts forward, grabbing Tails. Before anyone can react, he turns and throws Tails into Knuckles, then moves to punch them both into the floor. Tails manages to grab Knuckles and fly upward before he can though. Both Tails and Knuckles are breathing heavily. The Hybrid observes them a moment, then grins and vanishes. Tails tenses, and flies as fast as he can. The Hybrid appears an instant later where Tails had been but, seeing Tails flying away, zips over with instant speed and slams fox and echidna into the ground.

He laughs in mid air, floating above the ground. Silver tries swinging him away with telekinesis but the Hybrid blocks it with his own psychic powers and knocks Silver flying backwards. Blaze throws a blast of fire at him, which circles around him without the Hybrid moving and is thrown back twice as hard at Blaze. With no time to dodge, Blaze cries out as she takes her own attack and it knocks her to the ground.

Shadow yells and throws Chaos Spears at the Hybrid, who zips around them, laughs again and raises a hand into the air. Shadow's eyes widen as the Hybrid throws his own Chaos Spears, already glowing orange, at Shadow. The black hedgehog takes the attack as it connects and explodes, sending Shadow sprawling across the ground, smoke coming from his body. Shadow doesn't move.

Quake throws a powerful fireball, which the Hybrid reflects back at Quake. Quake is expecting this however, and punches the ball back at the Hybrid. The Hybrid dodges but Quake redirects the fireball and it connects with the Hybrid in an explosion. Blaze rushes over to grab Maria but the Hybrid has already recovered and sends her spinning away with a swat of his hand. He grabs Maria and holds a hand, flat like a blade, to her throat. With his phenomenal strength, he could cut Maria's head clean off using only his hand. The group stop attacking him.

He has them in a bind - none of them can move fast enough to reach the Hybrid before he kills Maria and he's too strong to battle. Simply too strong, with everyone's powers.

He laughs and presses his hand tighter against Maria's throat. Eggman yells out as Maria cries in pain. her cry is somewhat strangled by the Hybrid as his hand slowly restricts her breathing.

"Sh...Sha...doo..owwww..." she moans. Shadow grits his teeth, tears pouring down his cheeks. He is still lying on the floor, lightly smoking from the Hybrid's Chaos Spear. he is reaching a hand out to Maria, fighting to keep his eyes open.

"Maria! I'll save you! Just hang tight!" he yells. The Hybrid laughs and he draws his hand back to kill Maria. Shadow yells at the top of his lungs for him to stop.

"Stop! Please! Don't hurt her!" he cries. Eggman is yelling, swearing vengeance on the Hybrid if Maria is harmed but Shadow is more emotional. The Hybrid grins - he's not listening to either of them. He draws his hand back higher and brings it forward, at normal speed so Shadow can watch, towards Maria's throat.


	26. Chapter 26: Unstoppable

A/N: Almost 2,000 views on this story that's crazy guys! Thank you all for the continued support and I'm glad you're enjoying it!

 **Chapter Twenty-Six: Unstoppable**

A blade pierces the Hybrid's chest from behind, causing him to gasp in pain. His hand drops and he releases Maria. Shadow rushes forward and grabs her. The Hybrid grabs one of Shadow's spines, but another blade stabs the Hybrid's arm all the way through and he yells, releasing Shadow. Shadow rushes away with Maria until they're behind the group. They embrace and cry in each others arms. The group move in front of them to protect the reunited pair.

A third blade pierces the Hybrid's leg, to everyone's mystery. The Hybrid falls to the ground, blood seeping to onto the floor. He is breathing heavily from the lost of air due to the blade in his stomach. The Hybrid manages to lift his head enough to examine the blade. It's diamond shaped and made of Edgeonium. The blade is pulled out of the Hybrid's chest, seemingly floating in mid-air until Espio appears out of nowhere, glaring at the Hybrid.

"Let that be the end of your evil, mutant." Espio says. Quake and the group cheer at Espio's victory, but the Hybrid snarls and grabs Espio by the neck. Espio tries to stab the Hybrid again but the Hybrid grips his neck harder and Espio stops. The Hybrid gets to his feet and slams Espio hard into the ground with all his unnatural strength. The air leaves Quake's lungs as he sees his new friend crushed into the ground. The Hybrid releases the ninja and observes him from a height. Espio doesn't move. Not even an inch.

"His aura is fading." Quake gasps out loud to the group.

"That can only mean one thing, right Quake?" Silver asks nervously. Quake nods.

"Your sneaky friend is dead." The Hybrid growls, spitting blood onto the floor, "And now I'll kill all of you."

His words cut through the group and they're stuck still with shock. Espio...gone? Their speechless at the possibility.

Taking advantage of their stunned silence, the Hybrid rushes at Silver to attack him, but the wounds Espio dealt him severely affected his speed. He is still faster than Sonic or Shadow, but not faster than the two of them combined, so he isn't blindingly fast any longer. He still has Espio's blades in his leg and arm, and a gaping hole is in his chest from the first blade.

"Should have remembered your sneaky ninja friend." the Hybrid snarls to the stunned group, coming over to them,"Must have been cowering, hiding, invisible when I first got all your blood. Well that's it. You're out of trump cards. I'm going to get those Emeralds off of Sonic and pry them from his dead body. I'm going to crush each and every one of you who gets in my way."

He growls as he approaches them at a steady walk. He is limping somewhat from the blade in his leg and blood is pouring out of his wounds.

Quake snaps, recovering the first out of the group, who were shocked motionless at Espio's death. He charges, bellowing at the Hybrid, who swats him aside. His strength has been affected as well, for instead of going flying across the room, Quake is just knocked to the ground a few feet away from the Hybrid. The Hybrid turns to finish Quake off but the echidna is already on his feet, and he lands a punch on the Hybrid. The Hybrid stumbles backward.

The group erupts and cheers Quake on, spitting at the Hybrid. Quake stumbles toward the Hybrid and the Hybrid limps towards Quake. They trade a few weak punches, then Quake turns it up and slams a fist into the Hybrid's face. The mutant bends over backwards from the strength of the blow, but then lurches his body forwards and head-butts Quake to the ground with a yell.

Quake crashes backwards, but rolls onto his feet and leaps at the Hybrid, aiming a punch at him. The Hybrid swats him upwards and he flies several feet into the air. The Hybrid waits for Quake to descend, then punches him flying. Silver takes Quake's place and the two have a mental struggle. Both remain almost motionless as they use their psychic abilities on each other's minds. Espio's wounds haven't affected the Hybrid's mind that much, but occasional spasms of pain redirect the Hybrid's attention for a second, giving Silver the upper hand.

Silver eventually kneels down and holds his head in his hands, as if trying to fight off a headache. The Hybrid's supreme mental strength seems to be wearing down Silver. Tails flies up and distracts the Hybrid, slapping and kicking at his face. The Hybrid pauses a moment, and swats Tails flying aside to join Quake, then returns to the mental struggle with Silver.

Tails' distraction proved vital for Silver, as he's standing back up and concentrating with all his might, using his circlet as well, to try and pin down the Hybrid mentally. Silver uses his telekinesis to push the Hybrid back and away from him, breaking the mental battle.

Sonic is back up and he slams into the Hybrid with all his speed. The normally cheerful blue hedgehog has a serious air to him now, and he remains focused on his enemy as the two clash.

"Go on Sonic!" Tails cries from the ground. Sonic and the Hybrid rush at each other, trading lightning fast kicks and attacks. The two opponents seem evenly matched however, as they both manage to avoid a great number of the other's attacks. Sonic eventually trips the Hybrid up, causing him to fall to the floor. As he descends, Sonic kicks him away and the Hybrid is sent rolling across the floor.

The Hybrid manages to get up a moment later but Sonic is already upon him, dealing damage anyway he can. The Hybrid snarls after a few kicks however, and punches Sonic in the knee, causing him to yell in pain. The Hybrid then swings on his back, thrusting his feet upward, landing a kick into Sonic's stomach.

Sonic flips backwards, landing on his back with a grunt. The Hybrid stands and grabs Sonic with one hand, snarling in his face. He throws Sonic one handed across the room, where the blue hedgehog collapses in a flump against the wall. The Hybrid starts towards Sonic when Knuckles joins in, swinging a fist into the Hybrid's side. The Hybrid side-steps the attack, and kicks out backwards, catching Knuckles in the jaw. Knuckles grunts in pain and frustration - the Hybrid is a dangerous fighter even when seriously injured. It still may take the whole group to take him down, each of them attacking him individually.

Knuckles tries again, ripping up a nearby piece of machinery and launching it at the Hybrid. Without looking, the Hybrid ducks swiftly to avoid the debris, and blocks a sudden side attack from Knuckles who'd ran at the Hybrid from a different direction the moment he'd launched the debris.

The Hybrid catches Knuckles' arm and swings upwards, lifting Knuckles body into the air and flipping him mid-air onto his back. The Hybrid crashes a fist down into Knuckles' stomach, knocking him back first into the floor. The Hybrid goes to stamp on Knuckles when Silver holds his leg in place telekinetically. Knuckles has just enough time to roll away when the Hybrid counters Silver's attack and stamps down with enough force to dent the floor. The Hybrid launches a searing Chaos Spear at Silver, which Blaze deflects with a flash of fire.

Rouge flies up behind the Hybrid and restrains him, grabbing his arms and locking them behind his body. She pushes her knee into his back, forcing him forward and he lands face first into the floor. Rouge grunts as she continues to restrain him, fighting against his immense strength. Knuckles comes back over and goes to land a punch onto the Hybrid's head, but he kicks out at Knuckles' legs, knocking him backwards. Rouge tightens her grip and the Hybrid grunts in pain. A flash of light and a cry later and the Hybrid is up and Rouge is flying backwards through the air, knocked off of the Hybrid by his Chaos energy.

Blaze catches Rouge and the two girls land some distance away from the Hybrid. The midnight blue hedgehog snarls at them and charges at the speed of Sonic, but Quake intercepts him with a punch to the side, knocking him to the floor. Quake is snarling, furious at Espio's death. He lands a powerful punch into the Hybrid, who takes the attack and knocks Quake away with a punch of his own. The Hybrid grunts and charges up a fistful of energy, then punches Quake again. The energy explodes and the black echidna goes flying across the room. He crashes into the wall, only barely concious.

The Hybrid turns to the girls again but the two combine spinning kicks and fire attacks to keep him at bay. Rouge can fly and Blaze is almost as fast as Sonic, so the two acrobatic females are able to hold the Hybrid off as he fends off their attacks. They are stalling, waiting for someone else to join the fight to finish the Hybrid off.

The Hybrid gets bored and snarls, sending a pulsing wave of energy at Rouge and punching Blaze to the ground. Both girls are motionless, knocked out from the attacks.

Silver tries another battle, but the Hybrid dashes over and jabs Silver in the temple, knocking him clean out. He raises a hand to kill Silver when something explodes into the Hybrid, sending him to the ground.

He looks up and sees Quake aiming his glowing fist at him. It is slightly smoking from the attack he'd launched.

"That one slightly hurt, I'll give you that." the Hybrid says to Quake, who grits his teeth.

"It's time to end this game." the Hybrid growls and floats up into the air. He generates a ball of white Chaos Energy and expands it until it is surrounding his body.

"He's trying to heal himself!" Quake cries out, "Someone stop him!"

Tails struggles to his feet and aims his rifle at the sphere of light. He grunts and fires a powerful shot that pierces the orb. A cry of pain is heard and Quake allows himself a small smile. The smile fades when he sees poor Espio's body, and rage returns to the echidna.

Sonic struggles to his feet, grunting in pain. The Hybrid seems impossible to take down. He is at least able to be fought now thanks to Espio's attacks. Sonic thinks of the fallen ninja, and closes his eyes in respect for his friend. Espio had chosen to come here to help Sonic. And he'd died doing it.

 _I'll bring you back to our world when this is over, Espio._ Sonic thinks to himself and the memory of Espio, _I'll take your body to Vector and Charmy and you can have a proper burial._

Sonic looks at the Hybrid surrounded by the glowing ball. Sonic crouches and closes his eyes. He spins, getting faster and faster. And he launches himself into the air like something fired from a cannon, aiming at the Hybrid's sphere.

He collides with the Hybrid, as the powerful hedgehog doesn't see Sonic coming through the light of the sphere. Sonic knocks the Hybrid out of the sphere, which Quake and Blaze destroy with their projectile powers of energy and fire. The Hybrid and Sonic crash to the ground, but Sonic rolls over and stands on his feet. The Hybrid is up a second later, and to Sonic's astonishment, his wounds from Espio have already partially healed.

"You don't know when to give up, do you Sonic?" the Hybrid growls, "Fine. I'll end this battle once and for all!"

He slams a fist into Sonic's head, knocking him to the ground. He then creates a Chaos Spear and charges it. It's already a fiery orange without being charged, so his charged one turns a demonic red. With a thrust of his arm and a grunt, the Hybrid fires the Chaos Spear at a member of the group. The shot is powerful enough that, in their current state, it would kill whoever it connects with instantly. As the Spear travels through the air, the Hybrid turns back to the fallen Sonic. He lifts the blue hedgehog into the air.

"Now you can watch one of your friends die." he whispers in a dreadful voice. Sonic grunts and struggles against the Hybrid's strength, but the hedgehog punches Sonic once, hard, in the stomach, and Sonic yells out in pain, windless. The Hybrid slams Sonic into the ground, but making sure he's concious enough to see whoever the Spear kills.

Sonic is forced to watch as the Chaos Spear continues its flight. It's travelling right into the main body of Sonic's group of friends, travelling too fast for any to dodge. The only question of who will die is simple who the Hybrid had aimed the Spear at when he'd thrown it.

"Tails..." Sonic moans, "Knuckles...Silver...Shadow...Blaze...Quake...Rouge..." he worries about his friends, knowing he is powerless to stop the death of another one of his friends. He cries out as the Spear draws close, deciding, choosing it's victim...


	27. Chapter 27: GUN's Retreat

A/N: Another short one I'm afraid but it helps keep the tension alive ;) hope you're all enjoying it and we're reaching the end now. Thank you for the continued support!

 **Chapter Twenty-Seven: G.U.N.'s Retreat**

While the battle between Sonic, his friends and the Hybrid wages on, Doctor Eggman is collapsed against the ground. He finds he is too injured to move, but wants to watch the battle anyway to ensure nothing happens to his cousin, Maria. He, like Shadow, believed she'd died when on board the Space Colony ARK all those years ago when his and Maria's grandfather was still alive and working on Project: Shadow.

He'd discovered differently when arriving in the future, in a bid to find something to use against Sonic to defeat the hedgehog once and for all. G.U.N. had recognised him instantly, and when the doctor had explained his quest to search for a weapon powerful enough to destroy that meddling blue hedgehog, G.U.N., to his surprise, cheered and welcomed him with open arms. They praised him and his brilliant mind, explaining how the Doctor Eggman of this timeline had died some years ago to a disease, but rejoiced in the fact that they once again had a fantastic mind to work wonders with now that Doctor Eggman had returned.

Eggman had enjoyed the attention. It felt good to be praised for one's genius, to finally be recognised for the brilliance of his mind. He'd quickly been put to work, designing all sorts of monstrous weapons and robots using their extremely highly advanced technology.

He'd worked wonders, creating things beyond his wildest dreams and more. He'd built Chrome Sonic and had meant to take the robot back to the present with him to use against Sonic - in their timeline, Chrome Sonic's Edgeonium armour would have resisted every single one of Sonic's attacks and Chrome Sonic, being far faster than the original Sonic, would have easily crushed him. Then Eggman had discovered Sonic from the present, along with Tails and Knuckles, are here in the future and had gone to assist G.U.N. capture them with one of his larger, tougher Edgeonium robots.

While the battle with the Hybrid rages on, the High Generals Nohvelon and Brolaine had arranged the evacuation of all soldiers in the base. They'd leave the robots to finish off what is left of the slaves resistance and had cleared out of there. Nohvelon is right now heading to the core of the base, where he would set off a timer to detonate a bomb with explosive force equal to the comet that had landed not ten miles away from the base. They'd combined Edgeonium and nuclear energy to create the bomb, and it's power is enough to ensure that the base will be completely and utterly destroyed and render the surrounding air poisonous, and therefore unable to be inhabited.

Brolaine is organising the evacuation of the soldiers. He knows Nohvelon is setting off the bomb that will destroy the base, but they're also evacuating so the Hybrid can fight at his full strength. The creature was designed to be capable of handling titanic amounts of energy, measurements of energy no human should be anywhere near. They will message the Hybrid when they've all gone so he can go all out and destroy Sonic and his friends once and for all. Even if they did somehow defeat the Hybrid, they'd never escape from the explosion of the base, so they'll die no matter what. As for the Hybrid and the explosion, Brolaine is confident that the hedgehog is powerful enough to survive the explosion and return to G.U.N. at their new base located on the other side of the planet. That base is currently preparing for their arrival and it will still take a day or so to reach the base even by jet.

Nohvelon reaches the core of the base and passes the several security features required to enter. Even the sneaky, clever Rouge would not be able to get passed this level of security. Nohvelon enters the dark room. In front of him, a large electronic panel with lights and buttons everywhere. He tweaks the levers and buttons to change the countdown time before the explosion goes off, giving them employees of G.U.N. enough time to escape by jet, but ensuring the Hybrid will keep Sonic and company occupied until it goes off and destroys them. He activates the countdown of thirty minutes then runs out of the room.

Nohvelon meets up with Brolaine. The two nod and grin evilly at each other, then head out of their private jet. Brolaine raises his wrist and communicates with the Hybrid.

"We're taking off now." Brolaine says to the hedgehog, "Keep them busy for thirty minutes and they're dead. You'll survive the explosion, so you can meet up with us at our new base when the job is done."

They hear a quiet confirmation from the Hybrid and Brolaine cuts the connection. He and Nohvelon laugh at their victory in half an hour, for it is all but assured. All they have to do is wait.


	28. Chapter 28: Lost Again

A/N: I think I was supposed to upload this yesterday but forgot. Sorry to keep you guys waiting! The website was playing up for me earlier and not loading hence why I'm only just getting round to it. Thanks guys.

 **Chapter Twenty-Eight: Lost Again**

The Spear lands and connects with its target. A blinding light fills the room with the boom of an explosion. The light soon clears with the Hybrid grinning demonically.

The group look at one another. No-one has been harmed. As they half look at each other, confused and half smirk at the Hybrid's failure to kill any one of them they hear a cry of despair and sorrow behind them. They turn, filled with dread, to see Shadow kneels over a motionless Maria. The young girl has her eyes closed and she doesn't seem to be breathing.

"She was going to die from her illness anyway, Shadow." The Hybrid sneers, "I saved her hours of suffering. Now, I'd love for you to join her, but I'd like to play a little more first before giving into your wish."

"Silence you little insect!" Quake snaps at the Hybrid.

"You..." Rouge's eyes are wide open as she stares from Shadow to the Hybrid, "You have no idea what you've just done..."

Utter fear spreads across her face. But not fear of the Hybrid. Oh no. A new fear grows within her as she contemplates what Shadow will do now he's lost Maria for the second time. Lost her for good.

Rouge's fear turns to a snarl as she turns and charges at the Hybrid. He goes to slap her aside but she manoeuvres around the attack and swings a kick into the Hybrid's head.

"Disgusting filth, destroying an innocent child!" Rouge spits at the hedgehog as he raises an arm to block her kick, "What kind of monster are you?!" she yells at him. He laughs with cruel religh and lashes out, knocking Rouge backwards with a lightning fast slash of his arm.

"I'm the ultimate monster." he sneers, stepping over to her, "You cannot stop me." He reaches down and seizes her by the front of her top. He lifts her up and brings her face an inch away from his own, so his glare is burning in her eyes.

"I kill whomever I please, witch." he growls and punches her hard in the stomach. Rouge cries out in pain. The Hybrid punches her thrice more in the gut, with her crying louder and louder in pain, then throws her a few feet in the air and kicks her flying into the wall, where she collapses against the floor and flumps down face first, knocked out.

Quake charges and the Hybrid zips to the side and slams into Quake using his speed and body weight. Quake grabs the Hybrid by the neck and smashes his face with a giant fist. Quake punches the Hybrid flying out of his grip and aims a softly burning orb of fiery light at the Hybrid. He fires it and it explodes on contact. Knuckles comes over and he and Quake both punch the ground, hard. Spikes of earth erupt from the floor, piercing the Hybrid's body and trapping him on the earthly spikes, holding him there. Silver rips out part of the ground as a large, thick slab of rock and slams it down on top of the Hybrid's body. He lifts the slab up and slams it down again repeatedly until he is out of breath, where he simply drops the slab onto the Hybrid one more time and leaves it there.

A moment passes, and the earth explodes, sending shards of rocks flying in all directions. Silver manages to protect the group from the shards flying their way, and he drops his psychic shield before any more of his energy is drained. Silver is exhausted, and isn't in much condition to battle. None in the group are in fit shape, but the Hybrid seems as strong as ever, even with wounds from Espio. The Hybrid is standing up where he had been trapped by rocks only moments before, grinning demonically at the group.

Shadow is lost for words. Maria is in his arms, looking almost as if she is asleep. She is breathtakingly beautiful, an observation Shadow hasn't taken note of before. He had always been fond of her all those years ago but with them both being so young at the time, Shadow had taken it to be a strong friendship. Now, he sees her in a slightly different light, but knows he will never hear her voice again.

Tears rolls down his cheeks as he gazes upon Maria. She'd been like a sister to Shadow, and he loved her in that way. He is sure she'd loved him as a sort of brother as well. But now he'd never know.

Shadow closes his eyes as he hears the Hybrid jeering at him. The sorrow passes from Shadow's mind. The storm builds, growing at an alarming rate, faster than it ever had before. The dark clouds of his mind expand to fill his entire body and he starts quivering with rage.

Shadow stands up and slowly turns towards the Hybrid.

And his eyes snap open.


	29. Chapter 29: The Storm Breaks

A/N: Sorry for how this chapter ends. Let me know how you think I can improve, as always. I'm happy to see a lot of people enjoying the story. PM me or Review me any time! Thanks guys!

 **Chapter Twenty-Nine: The Storm Breaks**

Shadow vanishes. It isn't speed like the Hybrid is expecting, so Shadow reappears behind the Hybrid and kicks him across the room. Shadow chases hard after him and punches him into the wall. Shadow roars in rage and chases after the Hybrid again. The Hybrid jumps out of the wall and kicks Shadow away from him as he flies away to get some distance. Blaze intercepts him with a burst of speed and she kicks him to the ground. Shadow is on him in an instant, eyes burning. Pitch black and dark purple fire surrounds the Ultimate Life-Form, his energy erupting outward destructively as a result of the strength of his emotions. Small fireballs are burning in Shadow's eyes and his fists are on fire, both black and purple like the burning aura surrounding his body.

Shadow picks the Hybrid up by the neck and head-butts him into the ground. The Hybrid leaps up and picks Shadow up before Shadow can lift him up again. He punches him in the stomach, right cheek and lower jaw in the quick succession, making the lower jaw blow an uppercut that sends Shadow flying into the air. He throws an orange Chaos Spear at Shadow which explodes, damaging the black hedgehog even more.

The Hybrid glows green with Chaos Energy. It surrounds his entire body, then flashes outward, blinding the group of heroes temporarily. The Hybrid laughs as his strength and speed return - the green energy had been an emergency healing ability that has restored all his former strength. The white orb earlier had been a slower healing method but would have been more beneficial to him had it fully completed. The green heal has fully restored his wounds but it took a lot of the Hybrid's energy to heal so quickly, energy he now doesn't have to fight with.

The Hybrid still has plenty of energy to fight with, but with Shadow being unpredictable with his anger at Maria's death, the fight will no longer be as easy as the Hybrid had expected.

Shadow slams into the Hybrid with unseen speed, crashing the two of them into a wall. The whole building begins crumbling from the damage it's taken from the fight. As the walls shake and rubble falls from the ceiling, the group look upward, worrying at the state of the building.

Shadow and the Hybrid burst out of the wall, attacking each other at speed. They trade punches and kicks as they float through the air. Despite the Hybrid's phenomenal speed and strength returning, Shadow is holding his own, burning the energy in his new rings without caring the cost, and is able to deal as much damage as he is receiving.

"Quake, use your energy too. Go help Shadow." Tails says, managing a smile, "You and Shadow are the only ones strong enough to face the Hybrid at his full strength. I'll aid you however I can."

Quake nods and charges his energy. He meditates to a deep spiritual level, and he channels his inner energy to restore his exhaustion. He stands up, refreshed, and charges at the Hybrid.

With two opponents to deal with now, the Hybrid fully extends his abilities to keep the refreshed Quake and furiously powerful Shadow at bay. Quake is careful around Shadow, knowing the hedgehog would not care if he hits one of his allies in his red rage. The fire still surrounds Shadow's body, something Quake has never seen before.

The Hybrid avoids a punch from Shadow, but takes one from Quake. Up until now, the group have only fought him one on one and he is very slightly struggling to co-ordinate his movements to avoid attacks from two opponents at once. Quake is naturally strong anyway, having years of extensive training and a brilliant mind from his ancestors. Shadow is obviously powerful, as he had been the base body of the Hybrid, but since his rage has broken from Maria's passing, he is all the more dangerous.

Shadow swipes the Hybrid across the head and he is sent backwards. Quake and Shadow pursue him, Shadow reaching him first and he smites the Hybrid with a furious Chaos Spear. As Quake dives down to attack, Shadow raises a hand over his head. The air flashes and time slows down - he'd used Chaos Control to further his advantage. The Hybrid is now slow as a snail.

"Shadow!" Sonic yells from his collapsed state on the ground, "Don't maintain that for too long!"

"The Hybrid's too powerful to restrain him like that for a long time, Shadow!" Silver adds, "Don't put your life in danger just to destroy him!"

"He has taken everything from me!" Shadow snaps back, "I will do what I must to destroy this filth!" And he dives down at full speed. The Hybrid lands very slowly and Shadow collides into him at full speed and strength. An explosion of Chaos energy erupts around the two. Quake is blown away.

Chaos Control is ended, to Sonic and Silver's relief. Sonic looks up at the building. It looks like it's going to collapse at any moment.

"Guys!" he shouts, standing up despite his wounds, "We need to get out of here! This place is going to collapse, with us underneath it!"

The group nod and aim for the exit, except Shadow and the Hybrid. Quake stays as well, wanting to help Shadow as much as possible. the echidna nods to Knuckles, Silver and Blaze to get out of here.

They run like hell for the exit, grabbing as many of the rebel slaves and workers as they can, and dodging chunks of masonry, which are now falling freely from the ceiling as the roof collapses in on itself. Sonic ignores his wounds as he runs. Everyone does. Better to bite through a bit of pain and live than collapse and die without stopping G.U.N.

With Sonic, Blaze and Knuckles running and Rouge, Tails and Silver flying, they flee like the wind. Sonic hates running away from a fight like this, but Shadow will not let anyone stand in his way to destroy the Hybrid. Quake is strong enough to get out if he needs to. Sonic gasps as he remembers Espio. He turns tail, yelling at the others to continue and runs back for the ninja's body. As he enters the chamber where Shadow, Quake and the Hybrid are still fighting, he sees the flicker of purple on the ground. He collects the fallen ninja and goes to run out when the Hybrid darts over and crashes into Sonic, knocking the him to the floor.

"If I die, so do you, Sonic!" the Hybrid snarls at Sonic. Quake and Shadow appear a second later. Quake restrains the Hybrid in a similar way Rouge had, but with his greater strength, he is able to hold the Hybrid better than Rouge had. Shadow grabs Sonic and Espio and hands Sonic a small computer chip. Sonic takes it without question and Shadow looks him in the eye.

"Stop them, faker." Shadow says and sends them away with Chaos Control.

Sonic appears outside the building with Espio's remains and the chip. He observes the chip and sees E-123 written on it. It's Omega's programming chip.

Sonic sees the rest of G.U.N. fleeing and frowns. It's not fair that they should escape, with all the lives they've destroyed whilst Sonic and the others should perish. He sees Tails, Knuckles and the others heading towards him.

"We have to stop G.U.N. escaping." Sonic says as they reach him, "Shadow says we have to stop them. And while he's risking his life battling that monster in there, we can do some good by dismantling as much of G.U.N. as possible."

The others nod and put down the few soldiers and slaves they'd managed to save. Sonic recognises one of them as part of the group Espio had changed. Robert, Sonic thinks his name is.

They get to their feet, exhausted, and take off after G.U.N., determined to stop them completely.

Shadow flies backwards from a hit by the Hybrid, who vanishes with his speed. Shadow teleports to match the Hybrid's speed and the two furiously fight. Shadow slams the Hybrid into the ground.

"Why won't you DIE?!" Shadow bellows and barrages the Hybrid with Chaos Spear attacks. The Hybrid takes or parries the energy bolts with a grin and leaps up to meet Shadow in the air.

"Because I'm invincible." the Hybrid replies and goes to swat Shadow aside. Quake slams a blow into the Hybrid first however and the monstrous hedgehog flies to the side. Quake and Shadow look at each other.

"I'll restrain him." Quake says, "You hit him with everything you've got. Don't worry about me."

"He...he killed..." Shadow is shaking with shock and fresh tears pour down his face. Adrenaline and pure rage has fuelled Shadow's movements and attacks up until now, for he is as beaten as the rest of the group. With a moment's rest however, his heightened emotions return and his storm dies down slightly.

"I know." Quake replies, "But you have to let that go for now. Grieve for her later. We've an enemy to destroy."

Shadow's eyes harden and he nods. They both dart down as the Hybrid zips up and punches both of them hard in the stomach. They both recoil and fly upwards from the impact. The Hybrid laughs manically and chases after them. Shadow teleports, but the Hybrid is expecting this and changes direction. Shadow reappears and the Hybrid slams a punch into Shadow's chest, knocking him backwards.

Quake punches the Hybrid to the floor with all his might. He falls with the Hybrid, pounding him with all his strength until they both crash into the floor. Quake gets up and grabs both the Hybrid's arms. He steps onto the Hybrid's back, as he'd landed face down, and pulls on the Hybrid's arms, yanking them backwards. The Hybrid resists, and does it well thanks to his phenomenal strength, but all Quake's positioning is in the echidna's favour so the Hybrid's extra strength is useless to him.

Shadow lands and walks slowly towards the two, knocking Quake can keep the Hybrid down. Red fire replaces the black around Shadow and his eyes burn red. Energy builds in huge amounts, piling on top of Shadow's rage. He reaches the two and Quake lifts the Hybrid up, still restraining him. Shadow seizes the Hybrid by the front and glares into his eyes, teeth gritted, eyes mad with rage.

"Chaos..." Shadow begins. Fear flashes across the Hybrid's eyes.

"Wait!" the Hybrid says, "I was only acting on orders! You need to destroy G.U.N., not me!"

"Don't listen to him, Shadow!" Quake yells, tightening his grip on the Hybrid, "He destroyed Omega, ended the lives of Espio and Maria, and would have killed Rouge and you too! Listen to NOTHING he says!"

Shadow is seething with anger, so he grips the Hybrid's chest tighter. The Hybrid yells as Shadow yells,

"BLAAASSSTTTT!" and releases the red energy with as much force as he can muster. Light explodes into what is left of the room and the Hybrid screams in pain as the energy deals catastrophic damage to the Hybrid, Quake and the collapsing building.

The explosion erupts and sends the entire building flying to pieces in a huge ball of fire. It detonates the super bomb Nohvelon had set a timer for as well. The super-bomb's premature detonation along with the force of Chaos Blast ensures absolutely nothing would survive it.

Shadow yells out as he fully releases his energy. He sees Maria's body, and sees Eggman lifting her into a safety capsule and flying off with her body. Shadow yells out to the doctor, but doesn't dare attack him for fear he'd destroy Maria's body.

Quake lets go of the Hybrid, who is too weak to need restraining and flees as fast as he can. Shadow watches him go.

Sonic and the others turn at the sound of a titanic explosion and sees the base is being ripped to pieces by Shadow's energy.

"Chaos Blast." Sonic mutters. More energy is added to the Chaos energy, from Nohvelon's bomb. Sonic hears Nohvelon shout that the bomb has gone off prematurely and Sonic gets out the Chaos Emeralds - speed will not get them out of this.

"Chaos Control!" Sonic yells and warps himself, Tails, Knuckles, Rouge, Silver, Blaze, Quake and Espio's remains along with Omega's computer chip away from the explosion. He leaves Shadow, knowing the hedgehog should survive his own attack.

They reappear on the cliff where they'd first assembled. The group collapse, exhausted. Even from here, many many miles away, they can see the white and red light of Shadow's explosion.

"If the Hybrid survives that, we're done for." Knuckles says, observing the destruction.

"Yeah." Silver says breathlessly, "Talk about a Super Weapon." he gasps.

"You took him down, Shadow." Rouge whispers, "I'll miss you." she senses deep down that she will not see Shadow again. Even he couldn't possibly survive such a blast. And Omega is gone to, for she doesn't know about the chip Shadow had given Sonic.

"The rest of G.U.N. still need dealing with." Quake says. Sonic nods.

"We need to ensure they never try and take over the world again." he says, "People need safeguarding, but not ruling. G.U.N. is good at the former, not the latter."

"Wonder what happened to Eggman?" Tails wonders.

"He'll have escaped." Sonic says instantly.

"How do you know?" Knuckles asks. Sonic snorts in grim amusement.

"It's just how he is, isn't he? If anyone aside from us escapes that blast, it'll be him."

The others nod in agreement, and mourn for the losses they have suffered.

Espio.

Omega.

Shadow.

The group look into the distance at the explosion, hoping beyond hope the Hybrid perishes. But if something is strong enough to kill the Hybrid, surely it will be strong enough to end Shadow also? The explosion wanes away now, smoke filling the sky, polluting it. As the group observe the smoke, they feel it fill them as well, fill them with suffocating darkness as they know their work is not yet done. And with three members down, three powerful ones at that, Sonic isn't sure they can beat G.U.N.

"Sonic, are you okay?" Tails asks. He looks up to find the whole group observing him. Sonic nods and stands upright from where he had been sitting.

"We'll beat G.U.N." he says, "We'll make sure the sacrifices of Espio and Shadow aren't in vain. We will take them down! They have to be stopped, no matter what! We'll tear down all their bases, show them what it means to protect those you love!"

The group nod in vigorous agreement, then turn and observe the remains of Shadow's explosion in the distance.

"I hope so Sonic." Quake mutters as the sun sets on the smoke filled sky.

TO BE CONTINUED...

A/N: And that's it for now guys! Book 2 is in the making but I'm starting College soon so I'll have less time to write. I really hope you've enjoyed this book and look forward to the second one! Please drop me a review or a PM on what you think of the story. Thanks guys, see you soon!


End file.
